All Is Fair In Life or Death
by Demi Brackensick
Summary: Mayhem ensues when Esmeralda,Megara,Pocahontas and Mulan have all been kidnapped and are being held hostage against their will by a serial killer. Now it's up to Phoebus,Hercules,John Smith and Shang to track this menace down. Can these men find this maniac and save their women in time? Or will they be too late? Warning: Brutal Violence, Language and Light Rape.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Chapter One: Prologue**

_*Two years earlier*_

***Jane***

"Oh my goodness, girl, I can't wait for our San Diego trip next week!" Tiana Rose, a beautiful dark skinned young woman with thick, luscious black hair worn in a low ponytail, exclaimed excitedly to her close friend. The young brunette woman chuckled at her friend's enthusiasm.

"I know dear, I'm so excited! I mean, we don't leave until next week and I'm already finished packing!" Jane Driver, a gorgeous pale skinned young woman with light brown hair that flowed all the way down to her back, said happily as she stuck the last piece of her swimsuit into her suitcase, closing the luggage shut and beginning to zip it up.

"I hear you girl, I was packed and all set to go like a week ago!"

Once Jane was all finished packing, she instantly collapsed onto her bed, exhausted from waking up at 5am in the morning to finish packing, when in reality, her Spring Break trip to San Diego with her closest friends, Tiana, Naveen, Jasmine, Aladdin, Belle, Adam and of course her boyfriend of two years, Tarzan, was not until next week, but of course Jane being the perfectionist she was, decided to pack a week early so when the time actually came, she wouldn't have to put up such a hassle. Right now, both Jane and Tiana were currently in Jane's dorm, chatting and relaxing from such a stressful first year of University, but what they were most excited about was the fact that it was their Spring Break, which meant they receive two weeks off of school.

"I'm so glad that it's Spring Break already." Jane sighed in delight. Tiana did nothing but chuckle at her friend.

"I know, I'm just thankful that I didn't end up chewing my head off during the first few weeks when University started." Tiana said sarcastically.

"You can definitely say that again." Jane laughed, as the two friends remained silent for a few moments, until Jane broke it.

"Did that boyfriend of yours text you back yet?" She asked playfully, causing Tiana to roll her eyes and chuckle, as she knew that her best friend was referring to her boyfriend of two years, Naveen.

"Not yet." Tiana said in annoyance. "Gosh, he can be so lazy sometimes!"

"Well, that is definitely Naveen for you, and plus, you chose him anyways…." Jane joked, trailing off, only to receive a mocking glare from her best friend, as Tiana lightly tossed a pillow in Jane's direction.

"Oh, whatever!" Tiana said playfully.

"I wonder what Belle and Jasmine are doing right now." Jane said in thought, her mind instantly beginning to fill up with the thought of her other two close friends.

"Probably doing the same thing we're doing right now, except Belle would the one finished packing and Jasmine would be the one sitting on the couch waiting for her boyfriend to reply back to her." Tiana replied sarcastically, as Jane giggled.

"You're probably right, I swear, Naveen and Aladdin are so much alike."

"Trust me girl, I would know, I mean I've been in a relationship with the fool for what, two years now."

Upon hearing this, the brunette immediately lifted herself from her lazy position so she was sitting up straight, eyeing her friend down with a confused look on her face.

"Tiana…." Jane said soothingly, as a grin formed on her face.

"What? He can be a fool sometimes…."

"Yes every relationship has that, but at least you love him, otherwise you wouldn't still be with him."

"Of course I love him, he's _my _fool though."

Laughter erupted from Jane. "Yes, he is your fool, we know that dear."

"Have you heard from _your _boyfriend?" Tiana asked slyly, as the brunette began to blush as the thought of her sweet, charming and exotic looking boyfriend.

"Not yet, but he will be here in about an hour and a half or so. He usually prefers to just show up whenever he wants as opposed to calling or texting." Jane said as she rolled her eyes at the thought. A sly grin made its way on the young woman's face.

"Well, that's Tarzan for you my dear." Tiana said playfully. "The same thing applies to Tarzan and Adam, they are both so much alike, and it's pretty creepy."

"I can't argue with you on that one." Jane mumbled. It wasn't long until a sudden _ding_ erupted inside the small little dorm room, which nearly startled the two young women as they both jumped slightly. But the both of them calmed down when they realized the sound was coming from Tiana's cell-phone, signalling that she had just received a text message.

Immediately, Tiana dug through her purse, as her hand retrieved her cellular device, flipping her phone open so that the brightness on the tiny screen reflected off of her face, tilting her mouth in a soft smile as her fingers immediately got to work, tapping and dancing on the keyboard quickly, replying to her text message.

"Who are you texting dear?"

"That was Naveen, I'm supposed to be meeting him for coffee in a few minutes, and I told him I was already on my way." Tiana replied happily as she lifted herself off the couch and retrieved her purse, pulling her jean jacket on her shoulders and buttoning up the jacket.

"Oh already? Alright dear, well call me when you get home, it's getting pretty dark out and the last thing I want is for any creeps to be harassing my best friend at night." Jane said worriedly, as Tiana chuckled and shook her head at her friend's statement.

"Girl don't be silly, I'll be fine and plus, I'll have Naveen there with me anyways so you have nothing to worry about." Tiana said as she slipped on her sandals.

"Alright dear, be careful. Text me when you get there."

"Alright darling, I'll see you tomorrow hopefully." Tiana said as she walked over to Jane, the two of them embracing in a tight, sisterly hug. After a few seconds, Jane was already walking Tiana to the door.

"Bye, have fun on your little coffee date with Naveen!" Jane called as Tiana slipped outside and was now making her way down the hall of the dorm hall.

"Thanks I will! Have fun on your little date with Tarzan as well!" Tiana called back over her shoulder.

Sighing heavily, Jane quickly shut the door and locked it as she was already feeling exhausted and tired from all that packing and running up and about at 5am in the morning, but like she said earlier, it was all worth it. Now for the next few days, she could just relax without any worries about forgetting or reminding herself to pack for her trip next week.

Tarzan would be at her place in an hour or so and right now, Jane definitely needed to freshen up so she looked more presentable for the occasion, even it meant throwing on a pair of sweatpants and a big sweatshirt, which first belonged to Tarzan, but decided to loan it to her for the time being.

After a few minutes had passed, the time now read 9:03pm in big bright red letters on her little digital clock that rested on her end table. It was then when Jane decided that she would take a quick shower to rinse off all the sweat and get rid of the tiredness from her face. Snatching a white towel from the closet inside her bedroom, Jane quickly slipped inside the bathroom, stripping herself down completely as she threw up her hair in a lose bun, closing the door shut as she twisted the silver knob and instantly, hot water poured out of the faucet and she quickly dashed inside the shower, letting the hot water pour down on her skin, relaxing every muscle in her body as she sighed, but little did Jane know was that a certain dark figure had been keeping tabs on her right outside of her bedroom window.

* * *

While Jane was still in the middle of her shower, closing her eyelids shut as she was enjoying the hot water running down on her bare body, it was then when suddenly, everything went dark, all the lights were shut off and no sound was heard except for sounds of the streaming hot water from the shower.

Snapping her eyes open expecting to find light, all that her brown eyes could make out was nothing but the darkness, her heart beginning to beat faster inside her chest. Quickly shutting off the shower, Jane slowly poked her head from behind the shower curtains, her eyes scanning the little bathroom for any sort of intruder, but instead, all she saw was nothing but the darkness of her bathroom, the door still remained closed, feeling utterly confused, yet very fearful of what was happening right now.

Jane hesitantly decided to step out of the shower, sticking her right foot out and then slowly sticking the rest of herself out completely from the shower, snatching her white towel and wrapping it around her wet, bare body.

"Hello?" Jane called out quietly; her voice was slightly shaky, as the hairs on her arms began to stand up, but she heard nothing, absolutely nothing, not a single sound, except for the soft sounds of _drip drip drip_, coming from her faucet. Her first instinct was that it was probably her boyfriend, Tarzan pulling some sort of prank on her.

"Tarzan? Is that you?" She called out again, frightened. It was then when Jane quickly tiptoed over to her cupboard to retrieve her small flashlight that she kept handy, in case things like this were to happen. Fingers trembling, she quickly switched on the flashlight so that bright light was reflecting off the dark surfaces of her walls. Sucking in a deep breath, Jane built up the courage to call out again.

"Tarzan if that is you, you need to stop this childishness, and this is not a joke!" Jane called out again; her tone was now firm and serious, but slightly shaken. When she didn't receive an answer or at least a sound, Jane sighed in frustration as she quietly tiptoed towards her bathroom door, her hand grasping the handle, sucking in a deep breath as she slowly opened the door quietly, all that could be heard was the sound of the door cracking as it opened.

Poking her head out to make the sure that the coast was clear, all she could make out was darkness; everything was closed shut, all except for the window, which was slightly opened halfway to her bedroom. Sighing heavily and rolling her eyes through the darkness, Jane quickly set her flashlight on the nearest end table, her hand reaching out only to find the familiar feel of that smooth hardwood, setting the flashlight down as she lifted her hand to switch on the lamp that stood on the table, her room instantly filled with brightness, which did calm her down somewhat.

Once she set her eyes on the still opened window, her first instinct was to think that it was probably Tarzan who had ridiculously decided to enter her apartment through her window as opposed to knocking on the door. Rolling her eyes, Jane scoffed as she made her way over towards the window, the towel still wrapped tightly around her body, immediately closing the window shut and locking it as she reached up to drape the curtains closed.

"Tarzan, you can be so stupid sometimes, why didn't you just knock on the door like regular people do?" Jane muttered angrily under her breath.

"Tarzan's not here." A creepy low and raspy voice said from behind her, which definitely did sound like that, belonged to Tarzan at all.

Freezing right in her spot that she was in right now, Jane's eyes suddenly grew wide in terror, shivers running up and down her spine as her whole body began to shake and tremble, but she decided not to show this mysterious person fear, for she was much stronger than that.

"Who are you and why are you in my apartment?" Jane demanded, yelling as she shut her eyes closed tight, not daring to turn around and face this person.

"That's not important right now." The voice said again.

Before Jane had time to react or even get a word out from her mouth, it was then when the next thing she knew, that everything turned black, as she realized that the man had threw a sac bag over her head and now could not see a single thing. Without even thinking, Jane let out a high pitched scream in terror as she tried her hardest to fight against this monster, but he was much too strong for her, as he managed to send Jane falling to the ground from struggling so much, instantly throwing the whole bag over until her whole body was inside, struggling, fighting and screaming as much and as loud as she could, as this caused her objects to spill and come crashing to the ground.

The next thing Jane knew without even expecting it, she felt a sudden hard blow to her face through the bag, as this immediately made her unconscious, unable to feel or see anything.

It was then when the man was now carrying a limp Jane in the bag as he threw the sac over his shoulder, heading towards the window, quickly unlocking it as he instantly jumped out of the apartment, jogging his way down the street and vanishing in the darkness.

* * *

***Tiana***

"Oh shoot, baby, I just realized, I left my camera back at Jane's apartment." Tiana said to her boyfriend, Naveen, through her cellphone. "I'm just going to head back quickly to get it; I'll get there as fast as possible."

"Alright sweetie, be careful okay? I'll see you in a few minutes. Text me when you get there and when you're leaving" Naveen replied back to his girlfriend through the receiver.

"Okay, I will, thanks baby, I'll see you soon!"

"I love you."

"I love you too!"

Tiana quickly snapped her phone shut as she immediately began to turn back in the opposite direction where she had come from before, quickening her pace as she walked through the dark warm night in California, about almost halfway back towards Jane's apartment.

As Tiana continued walking alone through the dark, it was then when the young woman suddenly began to get some sort of feeling crawling up her spine that she was probably being watched or followed, but by who? It was then when the young woman walked past a bus stop, which only had at least three or four people waiting patiently for the bus to arrive, when at the corner of her eye, she noticed a mysterious shadowy figure that was standing casually against the a building, hands were tucked tight into his pockets and he kept his head down, as if he was minding his own business.

But Tiana just shrugged that off her shoulders as she continued walking, keeping her pace nice and quick, thinking that she was probably just being paranoid of some sort. Suddenly out of nowhere, and without being able to tell if she was imagining or not, it was then when the young woman suddenly began to hear the faint sounds of heavy footfalls walking in the exact same direction she was headed. Narrowing her eyes, she slowly came to subtle stop and instantly, the footfalls behind her grew fainter and fainter, realizing that they also came to a subtle stop as well, her heartbeat was beginning to race inside of her, but she decided to stay calm.

Slowly peeking over her shoulder, Tiana narrowed her eyes in confusion, scrunching up her face in confusion, hoping to find that same shadowy figure that she saw earlier just a few feet behind her, but was shocking surprised to see that absolutely no one was behind her, all except for the now tiny figures of the same people who were waiting patiently at the bus stop. Sighing, Tiana just shook her head, thinking to herself that she was probably losing her mind right about now.

Staring back into her walking, she quickened her pace, heels clacking against the stoned pavement ground with each step she took. In a matter of minutes, Tiana was just a few meters away from Jane's apartment, as she walked faster and faster, nearly breaking into a slow jog, making her way towards the apartment.

Once she reached the apartment, she decided to enter through the side doors that were located at the side, pulling the door open with such force that she nearly fell, as she slipped inside quickly, making her way up the one flight of stairs, thanking God that Jane was located on the first floor as opposed to the top floor. Throwing the door open, Tiana quickly made her way down the quiet hallway, thankful that the lights were still lit brightly.

Spotting the familiar room number "8", Tiana knocked lightly on the door, standing patiently as she waited to hear the familiar faint sounds of Jane's quick little footfalls make their way towards the door, but after standing at the door for about five minutes, it was then when Tiana was shocked that she did not hear at least the sound of shuffling coming from inside the little room.

Confused and slightly worried, Tiana quickly shoved her hands deep inside her purse, her hands digging inside to search for her phone, her fingers was slightly shaky but she managed to ignore that. Satisfied when her fingers grasped that familiar slightly cold and warm electronic device, Tiana pulled out her cellphone and immediately began pressing the buttons on her keyboard to send Jane a text, telling her that she was right outside her door.

After she sent the text, Tiana waited patiently for at least a reply, but once again, was shocked to not a receive any message from her friend, fear began to form inside of her. Sighing heavily, she threw her phone back inside her purse and pounded her fist against the door, loud enough so that Jane could hear.

"Jane! It's me, Tiana! Why aren't you opening the door or responding to my message!" Tiana called from outside the door.

"Jane can't come to the door right now, she's a little…_tied _up at the moment.." That same creepy and raspy voice said from a few feet away from her.

Upon hearing this strange and mysterious voice, Tiana's eyes suddenly popped wide open, right out of her sockets, as her heart began to beat faster and faster inside of her chest, her whole body was shaking and trembling violently, her fist balled up at her side tightly. It was then when Tiana decided to stand her ground, be brave, and face this mysterious demon.

Whipping her whole body around, the next thing Tiana knew was when the man lunged at her, clamping his big, clammy hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming, grabbing of her arms with his other, and his hand still over her mouth as a muffled scream erupted from inside of her.

"Shut up!" The man hissed, but Tiana fought harder, screaming for help with his hand still clamped tightly over her mouth.

It was then the next unexpected thing came so quickly in a blur, when the man threw that same sac bag over Tiana's head, shoving her to ground so he could successfully get her whole body inside. Once he was satisfied with his work, again, he threw another blow to her face through the bag, instantly knocking the young woman into unconsciousness, as he quickly through her limp form over his shoulder, and immediately made a dash for the exit.

* * *

***Belle***

"Oh my goodness, can you believe that next week is already Spring Break?" Jasmine Larkin, a gorgeous olive tan skinned young woman, with long luscious raven black hair that was wide down in low ponytail that reached just above her hips, asked enthusiastically to her friend.

"Jas, you've asked the same question like twenty billion times today and you already know what the answer is." Belle O'Hara, a beautiful young pale skinned young woman, with light brown silky hair that came down to the small of her back, chuckled to her best friend.

Jasmine laughed. "I know, I know, I'm just so excited! I can't wait to spend a whole two weeks with everyone and of course, Aladdin."

Belle rolled her eyes at her friend suddenly gushing over the thought of her boyfriend of three years, Aladdin.

"Yes, we all know that you're excited to be with Aladdin for two weeks." Belle said sarcastically as she chuckled. Jasmine playfully shoved her friend, as the two were currently walking home in the night from a little celebration they had at Starbucks.

They both really wanted to celebrate with their two other close friends, Jane and Tiana, but the two explained to them that they both already had plans of their own and that they wouldn't be able to make it, so of course, the two decided to go on their own. Right now, they were both currently heading towards Belle's little house, with the exception of Jasmine spending the night.

"Oh really? Like you're not thinking about how excited you are to spend the whole two weeks with Adam." Jasmine said defensively, as Belle began to blush at the thought of her boyfriend's name, which she's been in a relationship with for four years.

"Oh whatever." Belle said playfully as the two women shared a laugh with one another.

"Hey, I wonder what Jane and Tiana are doing right now." Jasmine said in deep thought of her two friends.

"It's funny you mentioned that, I was just wondering the exact same thing actually." Belle said. "And strange enough, I haven't heard a word from them since school today."

"Weird, neither have I. I hope they're alright."

"Yeah, me too." Belle said, with a tiny hint of worry in her tone. "Jane is probably with Tarzan and Tiana is probably with Naveen."

"That's true, but it's not like them to not text or call us for the whole day."

"Yeah, you're right. We'll call them once we get to my place."

"Sounds like a plan."

As the two women continued on their journey home, talking and chatting excitedly about their plans for San Diego next week, it never occurred to them that a strange and mysterious shadowy figure has been keeping a close watch on the two women ever since they both stepped foot out of Starbucks, as the shadowy figure quietly began to follow curiously, making sure to keep a far and safe distance back.

* * *

Jasmine immediately collapsed on Belle's bed, as she felt exhausted, yet somewhat relaxed that school was finally being let out for two weeks, while Belle on the other hand was beginning to organize her clothes and hygiene products wisely.

"Belle are you serious? You're going to start packing now? You can't just relax for a few seconds?" Jasmine asked, slightly annoyed at her friend.

Belle immediately looked up from her objects towards her friend.

"You should know me by now, Jas. I like to get things organized well in advance." Belle said, defending herself, only to have Jasmine roll her eyes.

"You and Jane are so much alike." Jasmine muttered.

"Hey, I heard that!" Belle said playfully, only to receive a chuckle from her friend.

"Hey that reminds me, why don't we give those two a call right now, just to see if they're okay." Jasmine suggested.

"Oh yes, that's right!" Belle exclaimed. "You call Tiana, and I'll text Jane."

Jasmine nodded in agreement as she snatched her phone from her purse, her fingers dialling Tiana's number, putting the phone to her ear as the other line rang, while Belle immediately began to get to work on texting Jane, her fingers dancing and tapping the buttons so quickly with such swift movement. A few minutes later, Jasmine sighed with a troublesome look on her face as she sadly brought the phone down from her ear.

"Any luck?" Belle asked.

Jasmine shook her head. "Not a single thing, it just sent me straight to her voicemail. Any luck with you?"

Belle sighed worriedly and shook her head. "No, I mean, this is not like Jane at all, she usually texts right back in like two seconds."

"You don't think anything happened to them, do you?" Jasmine asked worriedly, as Belle's expression suddenly became worried as well.

"I hope not…..I mean, they would tell us right away if something did happen." Belle said.

"Maybe we should try to get a hold of Tarzan and Naveen, I mean you never know, they could be still with them, and plus, maybe both their phones died."

"You could be right about that." Belle said in deep thought. "I'll call Tarzan and you call Naveen."

As if on cue, it was then when Belle's phone suddenly began shaking heavily in her hands, vibrating as she was receiving an incoming from Tarzan, the bright white letters of his name popping up on her phone. Feeling somewhat relieved, Belle shot Jasmine a reassuring smile as she quickly flipped open her phone and answered it.

"Hey Tarzan." Belle said happily.

"Hi Belle, um question for you, is Jane with you right now?" Tarzan asked through the receiver, his tone sounding slightly worried and his voice was slightly shaken.

"No…..I thought she was with you…." Belle replied back, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"Really? Because, we were supposed to spend time together, she usually leaves the door unlocked but when I went, it wasn't opened, so I knocked on her door ten times and she never answered." Tarzan said worriedly. "I tried calling and texting her and she never responded to any of my messages or calls."

Instantly, a huge, tight knot began to bubble deep inside Belle's belly, her face was beginning to grow pale, immediately not liking the sound of this.

"That sounds really fishy, because I just sent her a text not too long ago and she never responded back." Belle said. "I thought maybe her phone died and she was with you so I was just going to call you to see if she was there.

"She isn't and I'm really starting to get worried Belle…."

"I am too….umm….I'm going to text Adam and then I'll call you back in a few minutes."

"Alright, I'll talk to you soon."

With that, Belle immediately shut her phone, her heart beginning to beat faster inside of her chest, her hands beginning to tremble as she dropped her phone on the ground.

"What did he say?" Jasmine asked worriedly.

"He said that Jane never answered the door or any of his messages when he tried to get a hold of her."

"What? Are you serious?" Belle nodded.

Once again as if on cue, Jasmine's phone began to ding, signalling to her that she had just received a text message, and of course, the text message was from none other than Naveen, his name popping up in big, bold and black letters. As Jasmine hurriedly flipped open her phone, her eyes scanned the little screen, reading over the message.

_From: Naveen_

_Hey Jas, um, would Tiana perhaps, happen to be with you right now?"_

"Who is it?" Belle asked.

"It's from Naveen, he's asking if Tiana is with me right now." Jasmine said in monotone, as her fingers quickly went to work to send a text back.

_Reply to Naveen:_

_Hey Naveen, and no she isn't with me right now…..I thought she was with you….is everything okay?_

_From Naveen:_

_She isn't? That's strange because her and I were supposed to meet for coffee tonight. She called me when she was on her way and then she realized that she forgot her camera back at Jane's apartment so she went back. I told her to text me when she got there and when she was on her way back and she never did._

After reading over the text, Jasmine's face froze, as fear began to wash over her and nerves began to bubble inside of her belly, quickly responding back to the message.

_Reply to Naveen:_

_That's strange, I just called her a few minutes ago and she never answered. We haven't heard from Jane either, Tarzan just called Belle and told her everything that happened. I figured her phone must have died and she was with you_

_From Naveen: _

_She isn't and I'm really starting to get worried, Jas, it's not like Tiana to just stand me up like this and not text or call me._

_Reply to Naveen:_

_Believe me, the feeling is mutual, both me and Belle are worried now too, I'll call Aladdin and tell him everything. I'll text you back soon or call you._

_From Naveen:_

_Okay, I'll talk to you soon._

Without responding back, Jasmine immediately flipped her phone shut, her face beginning to grow pale as well, her heart racing and beating violently inside of her chest.

"What did he say?" Belle asked worriedly.

"The exact same thing, he hasn't from Tiana since she last called him to tell him that she had to go back to Jane's apartment because she forgot her camera there." Jasmine responded.

"Do you think that maybe Tiana could be with Jane right now?"

"I don't know…maybe they went off somewhere together and probably forgot to tell us…..I don't know Belle, I'm starting to get really worried."

"I am too, but we just have to try and keep calm, try not to jump to any conclusions too quickly."

It was then when a sudden strange sound came from downstairs, as if it was the sound of someone that had fallen so violently, which immediately startled the two young women as they both nearly jumped from the sound. Exchanging worried glances with one another, Jasmine was the first to break the silence.

"What was that?" Jasmine asked quietly, her voice was slightly shaken.

"It probably might be my Papa, he can be clumsy sometimes, and he does get home late." Belle said reassuringly, but was slightly shaken up as well.

Again, the strange sound from downstairs was made for the second time but this time; both the young women remained frozen in their sitting positions, not making a move whatsoever. The sound was heard once again for the third time, and immediately Belle was beginning to grow fed up with this noise, as she shot up from her sitting position and began to make her way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Jasmine whispered nervously.

"I'll be right back, it's probably my Papa, or it could be the wind." Belle said. "I'll be right back."

With that, Belle slipped out of her room and slowly began to make her way down the stairs; each stair was creaking underneath her feet which each step she took, but she just ignored it. As her foot landed on the ground, she quietly made her way through the slightly lit hallway, her eyes scanning all over the house for anything suspicious.

Everything seemed to be in place, exactly where it was, even the window in the family room was closed shut, the drapes closed over the window, but oddly enough, there was no sign of her father, which did confuse her somewhat because with all that strange and mysterious racket, Belle was sure that her father had come home from work late.

Furrowing her brow in confusion, she turned back to head upstairs when the sudden sight of the basement door caught her eye, the door was left open a crack, which was odd because she was sure that the basement door remained closed ever since she got home, but then again, maybe her father could have been currently occupying it.

Slowly making her way towards the basement door, Belle grasped the golden handle, pulling the door open to reveal darkness as she poked her head around doorway, searching for any sign of her father through the darkness.

"Papa? Are you home?" Belle called out, her voice echoing through the dark tunnel as it bounced off the walls, but not a single sound or voice responded back to her. Stepping foot inside, her hand searched the wall for feel of the little flick of the light switch. Satisfied once her hand came in contact with it, she carefully flicked the light switch on with her fingers, as brightness lit the upstairs part, the rest of the basement remaining dark.

"Papa? Are you down there?" Belle called out once again as she slowly made her way down the stairs into the darkness of the basement.

"Daddy's not here, little girl." That low raspy voice said smugly from behind her.

Popping her eyes wide open in terror, her heart sinking straight down to her stomach, it was then when Belle whipped out around, letting out a startled scream, but it was cut short when a large and clammy hand clamped her mouth shut, her scream was muffled by a strange man's hand, while his other arm wrapped tight around her neck, literally strangling her as Belle struggled and fought against him as hard as she could, but failed miserably which each attempt.

Next thing Belle knew, she was shoved to the pavement ground violently, hand still clamped shut over her mouth as a sac bag was thrown over her head, she was no in complete darkness as the man worked on getting her whole body into the bag, tying her ankles as she continuously struggled and tried to fight her way out of the bag, but it was no use, and it didn't help either when a sudden blow came hard to her face through the bag, that Belle was knocked unconscious, her limp body falling over as the man caught her, throwing the bag over his shoulder and immediately jumping pushed himself, along with the bag, through the small window.

* * *

***Jasmine***

Jasmine continued to sit on Belle's bed, waiting patiently for her friend to arrive back to her room, for being alone right now was beginning to scare her, the thought of her two friends that were temporarily AWOL at the moment was beginning to frighten her.

It was then when Jasmine's head suddenly snapped in the direction towards the door, that same strange sound coming from down the stairs was beginning to make her grow curious, and slightly scared, but as she heard closely, the noise that was being made, sounded like it was coming from Belle, but what could she be doing?

Curious and worried, Jasmine immediately jumped off of the bed and made her way towards the door, slipping outside as she made her way down the stairs, which creaked underneath her feet with every step she took. Once she landed on the ground, she quietly made her way down the hall, searching for any sign of her friend, her heart was beating and her palms were sweating, her eyes scanning the house carefully, as she gulped some saliva down her throat.

"Belle? Are you okay?" Jasmine called out quietly to her friend, pleading for at least an answer, but was worried when she received nothing in return.

Once Jasmine's eye suddenly came in contact with the now open basement door, relief came over her as she headed in that direction, hoping to find Belle somewhere down there; who she thought was probably playing some sort of evil prank on her. Stepping in the upper part of the basement, Jasmine tried her hardest to adjust her eyes to the darkness, searching for any sign of Belle.

"Belle? Are you down there?" Jasmine called out again, but still received no answer, not a single word, which was beginning to make Jasmine grow even more worried and frightened, letting Belle know that the prank was up, she could no longer take any more of this.

"Alright Belle, you can stop now, I give up, you're getting me really freaked out now." Still, no answer, as Jasmine slowly began to make her way down the stairs, peeking her head down for any sign of Belle as she stood at the foot of the staircase, but nothing.

"Belle seriously, come on out!" She called again.

"Belle's gone, doll face." A low raspy voice said from behind her, instantly sending extreme shivers and slimy tingle up her spine.

Before Jasmine had time to react, or even turn around, it was then when she felt her body being lifted up in the air, her legs kicking in midair to try and free herself as she screamed and fought, which suddenly came to a halt when a big hand clamped her over her mouth, continuously kicking her legs, flaring her arms as her scream was muffled, grunting in panic.

Suddenly, she was thrown on the staircase and was pinned down as a bag was thrown over her head, screaming and pleading for help, but failed, as her whole body was now thrown inside the sac, her ankles tied tightly at the end and the traditional blow to her face through the bag was sent her way, as her head landed smack on the stairs, thrown into unconsciousness as the man threw her limp body over his shoulder and immediately pushed himself and the bag through the small window, vanishing into the night.

Pretty soon, his van was now filled with the four unconscious young women in sac bags, as he drove off into the night, disappearing and completely vanishing.

* * *

**Read and Review! They mean a lot! This is just the prologue of what happened earlier. The next chapter will focus on the main characters! Hope you guys enjoy this!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_*Two years later-Present Day*_

_RRRING! RRRING!_

The signal of the final bell rung throughout the entire school of San Jose University, which meant that the very first year of completing school was coming to an end for the year, as cheering, laughter and excitement erupted from every single student within the school grounds, the stampede of students hurriedly making their way for the exit as they all piled out of the building, immediately searching for their close friends, beginning to chat excitedly with one another about their plans for summer break.

As everyone hurriedly made their way out of the school building, a young woman by the name of Esmeralda Moore, who had soft tanned skin, raven thick black hair, emerald green eyes and had the slim body of a dancer, was currently sitting under a large shady tree, soaking in the fresh warm spring air as it soothed her. Esmeralda and her family were all originally from Paris in France, but her family decided that it would be best to move to the States as her parents wanted their daughter to get a better education. You could say that Esmeralda was known as one of the most kind hearted people that anyone would ever come across, which was true because Esmeralda did have a heart of gold, meaning that she could easily look past the bad and search for the good in people, which is why everyone loved her, despite the fact that she was only a freshmen at San Jose University, everyone, including some of the mature students looked up to her for strength and guidance and of course, Esmeralda was willing to share that with everyone.

As Esmeralda was still continuously enjoying her relaxation just lying in the soft grass, her relaxation was suddenly interrupted by her boyfriend of four years, Phoebus, who had short golden blonde hair and toned body, and who also came from Paris, France. To her, Phoebus was the most handsome and charming guy she's even laid eyes on, and not only was he extremely good looking, he was also very kind, caring and very protective of her. The two started dating back in high school during their freshmen year at Oakland High. Of course, they had their fights and arguments like every couple does from time to time. It got worse to the point where they were both on the verge of breaking up and going their separate ways during their senior year when Phoebus was offered a scholarship to the University of Michigan for football, which he was considering at the moment, whereas Esmeralda was gun hole about attending San Jose University for dance, which of course made her angry and heartbroken that her boyfriend would choose football over her, but at the same time, she knew football meant a lot to him so she didn't want to get in the way of his dreams. Of course, Phoebus confessed that nothing means more to him than she does, so after a calm and meaningful talk, Phoebus had decided that he would drop the offer and attend University with his girlfriend, and the good thing that came out of this, was the fact that he was also offered a football scholarship to San Jose, and automatically, he took that offer, and the two have been growing stronger and stronger ever since then.

"Hey beautiful." Phoebus said as he plopped himself down on the grass beside his girlfriend, leaning over to place a tender kiss on her cheek.

"Hey you." Esmeralda replied, smiling as she took out her ear buds and threw them inside her bag.

"Where's the rest of the gang?"

"Probably taking their sweet little time and mingling with everyone else as always." Esmeralda sighed as she shook her head and chuckled, as Phoebus did the same.

"Well, I hope they get here very soon because I have a little announcement for them to hear."

Hearing this, Esmeralda suddenly snapped her head around in her boyfriend's direction, staring him at with a confused expression on her face.

"An announcement? What kind of announcement is this?" She asked curiously.

Phoebus looked at her, a grin playing at his lips. "You'll just have to wait and see." He replied as he placed another kiss on her cheek, and soon, his mouth found hers as they both began to share a sweet kiss with one another.

"Oh please, will the both of you just get a room already?" A voice asked sarcastically, interrupting the couple as they quickly pulled apart to witness who the voice belonged to.

Once they were both able to see clearly through the sunlight, it was then when Esmeralda realized that the voice and that sarcastic manner came from none other than her closest friend, whom she's known since they were both three years of age, Megara Egan, as she plopped down onto the ground beside her, who was accompanied by her boyfriend, Hercules.

Esmeralda and Megara-Meg as she preferred to be called-have been best friends since they were both toddlers. They met in preschool, where Meg was quickly looked upon as an outcast from the rest of the little kids. Not knowing who to play with during play time, Esmeralda decided to take this as an opportunity to befriend her as she offered Meg to come and help her build a sand castle and from then on, the two became fast friends and they've both had each other's backs no matter what, even throughout high school. Of course, they had their fair share of petty arguments and fights, but something as small that could never tear their strong friendship apart, they were inseparable, practically like sisters.

Meg had pale skin, brownish auburn hair that she tied in a high ponytail, violet eyes and a naturally curvy figure, making most of the girls-and women-jealous of her curves. Like her friend Esmeralda, Meg also came from Europe, except she was originally from Greece, which her family moved to the states when she was only two years of age. As Esmeralda was more of the positive and outgoing type, Meg on the other hand was more of a private person, having the liking to keep to herself as opposed to spreading her business around and telling everybody her secrets, with her closest friend being the exception and of course, her boyfriend of three years, Hercules, who just like her, was also from Greece. Hercules was very handsome and extremely good looking, with orange curly hair and not to mention, his muscular body that every girl fell for.

The two have been together since their sophomore year at Oakland High. It was easy for all of them since Hercules and Phoebus were best buds back in middle school and the four of them took that as an opportunity to go on double dates with each other and they usually ended up having a good time afterwards. Almost every girl at Oakland High fell head over heels for Hercules, with him being part of the football team, you could say that he had grown somewhat popular, but of course, Meg didn't mind, except for the fact that every girl would literally throw themselves at her boyfriend, but in the end, Meg was Hercules priority and he was not going to let anything come between them. Hercules was very caring and he had a heart of gold and he was very protective of his girlfriend, even though they had their share of numerous fights and arguments back then, which gotten to the point where they eventually broke up for about a month and right after that, they were able to resolve their issues and eventually get back together, making their relationship stronger than it ever was.

Esmeralda and Phoebus couldn't help but roll their eyes and chuckle at Meg's sudden sarcastic manner.

"I don't know why you guys think it's a joke, I'm being serious, no one wants to see you both sharing your public display of affection." Meg said playfully, with a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"Oh yeah? This coming from the girl who always sneaks off with her boyfriend to make out with him in a corner after every time they win a football game?" Esmeralda asked sarcastically, causing heat to run to Meg's cheeks as she blushed a bright shade of red.

"You promised you would never bring that up!" Meg scolded her friend as she shoved her, causing Esmeralda to laugh, as did Phoebus and Hercules.

"She does have a point there, Meg." Phoebus mumbled, causing a frown to form on Megs' face, digging her fingers into the grass as she grabbed a clump and threw it in Phoebus' direction.

"Hey!" Phoebus said defensively.

"Now Meg, you know it's nice to throw grass at people." Hercules said soothingly, sounding like a father giving clear instructions to their child, as Meg playfully shoved him.

"You're no help!"

Meg stubbornly crossed her arms over chest as she pouted, causing Esmeralda Phoebus and Hercules to share a laugh together as they all taunted their friend, where Hercules was able to lean over and place a soft kiss on his girlfriend's cheek, but of course Meg stubbornly turned her head away, playfully rejecting his kiss.

"Aw you're going to deny my kisses now?" Hercules whined playfully, like a little kid being rejected of ice cream.

"Oh Meg, we're just messing with you." Esmeralda said soothingly as she enveloped her friend in a hug.

"Yeah Meg, you know we love you, that's why we taunt you all the time." Phoebus said innocently.

"I hate all of you sometimes." Meg muttered playfully under her breath, earning another laugh from the three.

"I love you…." Esmeralda said innocently, which caused a smile to play at Meg's lips as she rolled her eyes and returned her friend's hug.

"Hey! So you give her a hug but you won't give me a kiss?" Hercules whined as he too began to pout, causing Meg to chuckle and roll her eyes playfully.

"Oh Wonder Boy, come here." Meg said softly, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's neck, her mouth finding his as the two shared a sweet kiss with one another.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Phoebus muttered under his breath, earning a well-deserved elbow to the ribs from his girlfriend.

"Oh shut up!" Hercules said playfully to his friend as the two laughed with one another.

"Where's Mulan and the rest of the gang?" Meg asked curiously.

"Who knows, those guys are hard to keep up with." Hercules replied as he leaned back against the grass, sighing in content.

"I texted Mulan and Pocahontas a while ago, they should be here with Shang and John very soon, hopefully." Esmeralda said.

"They need to hurry up and get here." Phoebus said sounding somewhat impatient.

"Dude, why the rush?" Hercules asked.

"Supposedly, Phoebus has an announcement that he wants all of us to hear." Esmeralda said.

"Why not tell us now what this little 'announcement' is?" Meg asked, making air quotes around the word 'announcement'.

"Because I want to wait until _everyone _is here so I don't have to repeat myself over again." Phoebus said.

"Can you at least give us a hint as to what it is that you want to tell us?" Meg asked.

Phoebus hesitated for a moment, but eventually gave in. "Alright, well it's something exciting."

"Are we going to _like _this?" Hercules asked sceptically.

"I'm sure everyone will like it, besides, it's a good thing anyways." Phoebus replied.

"Hey there you guys are!" Another voice said happily, as the four looked up through the sunlight, realizing that the voice came from none other than their good friend, Mulan, who was accompanied by her boyfriend of two years, Shang, along with her close friend, Pocahontas and Pocahontas' boyfriend of two years, John Smith.

"Finally! What took you guys so long?" Phoebus asked jokingly as the four of them plopped down on the ground and joined the rest of the four, leaving all eight of the close friends in a circle together.

"Blame these two." John replied playfully, nudging his girlfriend while pointing at Mulan as well.

"Yeah, they just _had _to stay an extra ten minutes to tweak their exams so they can both get straight A's later on." Shang agreed quickly, with a hint of annoyance, but of course everyone-including his girlfriend-knew that he was only kidding.

"Hey, well it's not our fault that we're both such…._nerds_, as both you and Shang refer us to." Pocahontas said defensively, but playfully as well, earning John a well-deserved slap on his arm.

"Well it is true, I mean….you both act like nerds sometimes…." Shang muttered under his breath, causing Mulan to punch her boyfriend in the shoulder.

"Oh shut up, at least both of you don't come from families who _always _expect their child to bring home straight A's!" Mulan defensively, causing all four of the young men to laugh in response.

"Men…." Meg muttered under her breath, slapping Hercules in the head as his laugh immediately died down.

"I know, they can so be immature sometimes." Mulan agreed with her good friend.

Mulan Wen had pale skin, shoulder length straight black silky hair, with dark brown eyes and a fit/athletic figure, but she still had the right shape of a womanly figure. She was originally born in China, but her family transferred to the States right when she turned three years of age. One could say that Mulan was more of a tomboy as opposed to being such a girly girl that loved to shop and get their nails done on a regular basis. Mulan preferred to hang around the guys and participate in sports such as football, wrestling, hockey, rugby, soccer and of course, slip and slide in the mud, which was just her personality. Although she was a tomboy, that didn't stop her from developing a strong friendship with her close friend whom she's known since they were four years of age, Pocahontas, and her two other close friends, Esmeralda and Meg, which all of them met together in middle school, the four of them joined and connected in an instant. You could say that the four girls were practically inseparable together back when they were younger, but to this day, they still remain close friends, and of course, Mulan could never forget about her boyfriend of two years, Shang, who was a transfer student in elementary school from China.

From the minute the two started middle school, practically everyone in the whole school knew that Mulan and Shang were both secretly crushing on one another, but of course, neither of them were the least bit brave enough to make the first move, resulting into both of them chickening out completely, so throughout their full year of middle, they both decided to remain just friends with one another. However, that all changed when the two of them finally started dating in their junior year at Oakland High. Just like Hercules, Shang also grew somewhat popular, as he was also part of the football team as well. And of course, nearly every girl fell completely head over heels for him, but to Shang, he only had his eyes set on one special girl, and that was Mulan. Shang was extremely handsome, charming, friendly, kind hearted and good looking, with shoulder length long black silky hair that he kept tied up and a toned, muscular body. Of course like every other couple, the two had their fair share of arguments and fights, but their relationship was so strong that nothing could ever keep them apart.

And there was Mulan's closest friend, Pocahontas. Pocahontas Bedard had copper skin, with long luscious black hair that spilled all the way down to her lower back, with blue eyes and with a slim, athletic figure, who had a Native American background, which she was originally born in Virginia, but instead her and her family moved to California. Like Esmeralda, one would say that Pocahontas was also known as friendly individual with a big heart. She was more of the strong willed and independent type, and sort of referred to as an over achiever, but everyone loved her regardless. Like her friend Mulan, she also preferred sports, but more of track and field as opposed to football or rugby. But everyone knew Pocahontas for her big heart and for her strength, everyone including her boyfriend of two years, John Smith, who originally from England, but immigrated to the States with his family.

Unlike the rest of the group member, Pocahontas and John's first meeting and introductions with one another was more of a rocky start between the two, resulting in Pocahontas completely hating his guts the minute she first met him, as she thought he was nothing but a cocky, selfish and arrogant jerk. At first, the feeling was mutual, as John first saw Pocahontas as over achiever, who cared about no one else but herself, but of course, everything that two thought of each other at first was completely false. John was very handsome, with shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes and toned muscular body. But their views on one another changed instantly when the two were paired up together for an assignment for school. As they both worked closer together and got the chance to know each other, soon they began to warm up to one another, which formed a unique friendship between the two. However, a couple years later they both eventually started dating. At first, Pocahontas was sceptical about her new relationship with John from the start, having the feeling that their relationship probably was not going to last no longer than three months or so. But of course, that everything changed and her worries disappeared, with the two of them being together for two years and have been growing strong ever since.

"Alright Little Bo Peep, everyone is here now so spill, what is this big announcement that you've been dying to tell us?" Meg asked impatiently.

Upon hearing his new nickname, Phoebus did nothing but shoot a frown in Meg's direction. "Alright, alright, now that everyone is here, I have some news that I want to tell you guys."

"News? What news? Nobody told me anything about news." Shang said, sounding somewhat confused.

"Phoebus, are we going to like this so called news you have to tell us?" Pocahontas asked sceptically.

"I have a feeling you all will, that is if either of you are kind enough to let me announce this." Phoebus said gently, with a hint of annoyance to his tone.

"This better be good." John muttered.

"Alright now that everyone is here, I have some exciting news that I want to share with all of you."

"Didn't he just say that like three times already?" Mulan muttered to Meg, as the two snickered, causing Phoebus to shoot the both of them with an annoyed glare in their direction.

"Anyways, so I was doing some thinking." Phoebus started. "Since we've all somehow managed to make it through a hectic and stressful first year of University, I was thinking, why not reward ourselves?"

"Reward ourselves?" Hercules asked dumbfounded.

"With what, the eight of us pigging out on nothing but ice cream and junk for the whole summer until eventually we're all the sizes of walruses?" Meg asked sarcastically.

"Yeah Phoebus, I mean, Meg does have a point there." Esmeralda said soothingly.

"And plus, pigging out on nothing but junk is very unhealthy for you!" Pocahontas said sternly as every single person in the circle all turned to stare at their friend like she was crazy.

"What? It is. I mean some of us are trying to watch our figures here." She replied defensively, as Mulan did nothing but snort and chuckle, as John and Shang did the same.

"Anyways, yeah dude, where exactly are you going with this?" Shang asked.

"Please don't suggest that 'rewarding ourselves' means the eight of us being trapped in the school like last time when everyone else went on their Spring Break trips except for us!" John said, his tone was firm and demanding.

"Well I'm going to be honest, that was actually pretty fun, I mean look on the bright side, at least we got to spend Spring Break together like a family." Mulan encouraged, as everyone else surprisingly agreed with her.

"Actually, Mulan's right, I mean it was pretty awesome that the eight of us got the entire school to ourselves for two weeks." Esmeralda agreed.

"Those were some pretty good times, but no, that's not where I was getting at." Phoebus said.

"Well then, spit it out man!" Hercules said impatiently.

"Well since summer is here, I was thinking, why not the all of us go away together for summer vacation?"

"Go away? Well, where exactly did you have in mind?" John asked eagerly, as his ears perked up at the sound of the idea.

"I was thinking that maybe we could go camping at my dad's cottage that he usually lets me use during summer break….." Phoebus began to trail off.

"Camping? That doesn't sound like a bad idea." Pocahontas agreed.

"I wouldn't mind going camping for the summer, I mean, I've never been before, so this might be an interesting experience." Meg said.

"Really Meg? You've never been camping a day in your life?" Shang asked, sounding somewhat surprised.

"Nope."

"That's because she's scared of bugs and spiders." Hercules whispered to Shang, as the two of them snickered, which caused Meg's face to boil with fake anger.

"I heard that Wonder Boy." She snapped, earning him another well-deserved slap in the head.

"I'm up for anything." Mulan said.

"Well it's either that, or…we all book a flight to Daytona in Florida for a month." Phoebus suggested, as this caused ears to perk up and extreme excitement to cross on every single individual's faces.

"Daytona in Florida? Hell yeah, I'm in!" Shang exclaimed excitedly.

"Phoebus, are you serious? You're suggesting that all of us head to Florida for summer break?" Esmeralda gasped happily.

Phoebus nodded, smiling. "Yeah, why not? It will be a great get away for the break."

"I'm in too!" Hercules beamed happily.

"Me too!" John exclaimed.

"Then again, Florida does sound like a better option…." Meg said in deep thought, a grin playing at her lips. "Alright, I'm in too."

"Like I said, I'm up for anything, so I'm in." Mulan smiled excitedly.

"What about you Pocahontas?" Esmeraldas asked her friend hopefully.

"Yeah, what do you say?" Phoebus asked.

As much as Pocahontas loved the outdoors and being close to nature, she thought about the announcement a little bit more, but finally, she was able to come to a final decision, as a smile tugged at her lips.

"Alright, I'm in too!"

Upon hearing her final answers, cheering erupted from everyone within the circle, well mainly the cheering from the guys, as the girls did nothing but laugh at how silly and childlike their boyfriends were acting right about now. Soon after a few minutes, the cheering began to die down, as everyone began to relax, discussing their plans for Florida.

"So it's settled, we're all going to Florida." Phoebus said happily.

"But wait, how are we all going to book the flights? I doubt any of us have enough money to pitch in." Esmeralda piped in.

"I have that all covered, I can give my parents a call, they won't mind paying for everything a flight for us to get down there, and plus, they both have a house that's big enough for all of us to stay in, so hotels won't be a problem." Phoebus inquired.

"Sweet! I'm loving this already!" Hercules said excitedly.

"You're only 'loving it' because you don't have to pay…" Meg said playfully, causing Hercules' face to fall into a frown.

"She does have a point, I mean if it wasn't for how generous Phoebus' parents are, none of you men would be as excited as you all are now." Mulan said sarcastically, as Meg snickered.

"Well either way, I'm still excited that we're all going." Pocahontas said cheerfully.

"You see, I like Pocahontas' cheerful statements." Shang said, as Mulan rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"Yeah, I'm with you on that one there bud." Hercules agreed quickly, eyeing his girlfriend down with a playfully glare.

"Well I hate to brag, but I do happen to have the best girlfriend in the world…" John said with a cocky smile as he draped his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders, causing Pocahontas to roll her eyes playfully and snicker.

"No need to show me off as your trophy now." Pocahontas said.

"Whatever dude." Shang said jokingly.

"So wait, when are we planning to leave?" Esmeralda asked.

"Well I did mention the idea to my parents about a month ago, so I can give them a call as soon as possible and they'll most likely have everything all set and ready to go by the following week." Phoebus stated.

"So not next week….but the week after the next?" Mulan said as she tried to stomach every single one of Phoebus' words.

Phoebus nodded. "Yes, you're right on track."

"Alright, with that taken care of, we leave in two weeks." John said, as everyone else agreed. As the eight friends suddenly became involved in gossiping excitedly about their plans for their big trip that was in two weeks, it was then when all of a sudden, their ears immediately perked up when two freshmen college girls came walking in their direction, as the two sheepishly approached the group, one had incredibly long golden blonde hair and green eyes, while the other had gorgeous bright red hair with ocean blue eyes.

As all their eyes shot up in the two girls' direction, Esmeralda was automatically the first to recognize exactly who the two were, as she smiled warmly up at them and was the first to speak.

"Hey Ariel, hey Rapunzel, what's up?" Esmeralda greeted warmly.

"Hey Esme, hey everyone, and nothing much, just heading back to our dorms to relax, you know, school is finally over." Rapunzel said sheepishly.

"I completely understand where you're coming from." Esmeralda agreed.

"I'm pretty sure we can all agree that we're all just glad that school is done for the year and we all didn't chew our heads off like we've planned from the very beginning." Meg piped in, queuing laughs from the group, including from Ariel and Rapunzel.

"I totally agree." Rapunzel agreed.

"So do you guys have any plans for the summer?" Ariel asked

"We do actually, we were just discussing it right now." Mulan said.

"Really? That's awesome! What are you guys planning to do?"

"We're actually planning a trip to Daytona in Florida for about a month." Phoebus said.

"That's so cool! I hope you guys have a blast!" Rapunzel said happily. "We were actually thinking of going camping at my dad's cottage for three weeks with a bunch of people."

"Yeah, we were gonna ask you guys to join us, but it turns out you've already made plans of your own." Ariel smiled.

"It was nice of you to extend the invitation." Pocahontas smiled. "We would have loved to come along."

"Yeah, we really appreciate it, thanks." Esmeralda said.

"Guys, you realize that we have four months of summer vacation and we're only going to be gone for a month." Meg piped in. "I mean, we still have lots of time, I'm pretty sure there's something we can do afterwards with them."

"She does have a point." Shang agreed.

"Yeah definitely, we can all do something together when we all come back from our vacations." Ariel chimed in.

"For sure." Rapunzel said. "Well, we're going to head back to our dorms now, just thought we'd stop by and say a quick hi."

"Well you guys take care and hopefully we'll see you around soon." Hercules said. As Ariel and Rapunzel smiled and began to wave goodbye and head back in the direction they were originally headed, it was then when Rapunzel immediately stopped dead in her tracks, a sudden thought coming to her head as she turned on her heel and sheepishly made her way back towards the group.

"Oh I almost forgot, did you guys hear about anything suspicious?" Rapunzel asked, sounding somewhat worried, as the eight friends all exchanged confused glances with one another.

"Anything suspicious? What are you talking about?" John asked, sounding confused.

"You guys never heard about what happened two years ago?" Ariel asked, shocked, as the group shook their heads.

"What happened two years ago?" Shang asked.

"Didn't you guys hear about those four girls that disappeared two years ago?" Rapunzel asked.

"What four girls are you talking about?" Pocahontas asked, beginning to feel uneasy about what was about to come next right out of Rapunzel's mouth.

"The four girls that disappeared, they were all students here at San Jose University." Rapunzel explained.

"Yeah, and still to this day, no one has seen or heard of them ever since." Ariel said, as hearing this suddenly began to cause Meg and Mulan to feel somewhat spooked about this mysterious news.

"So you're saying that these four girls whom we've never heard of before, have completely disappeared?" Meg asked, her voice slightly shaken.

"And no one has heard from them since two years have passed?" Mulan finished, as both Rapunzel and Ariel nodded.

"Not a single word from them." Rapunzel said.

"Yeah and so far, a lot have people around here, especially the cops have been growing very suspicious." Ariel finished.

"So let me get this straight, there were four girls that attended this school before us, and then all of a sudden, they just randomly disappeared?" Hercules said, sounding confused as he tried to piece all of this information together.

Ariel nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty creepy, I mean, they could still be out there somewhere."

"Does anyone know how they supposedly and where they disappeared to?' Phoebus asked, as Rapunzel shook her head.

"No one knows, and it's been already been two years."

"That does sound suspicious.." Esmeralda said in deep thought, instantly feeling nerves and fear beginning to bubble inside her belly.

"Well, did anyone mention anything, or _anyone _that looks suspicious?" Mulan asked.

"Not that we've heard, but everyone including the police have been alerting young females to stay alert and to make sure that you're not wandering alone at night." Rapunzel said.

"Yeah, but I'm just worried about those four girls, I hope nothing bad happened to them." Ariel said.

"I just hope the police are able to find them soon" Rapunzel said, as she turned her attention back to the group that was below her. "Well, just thought we'd warn you guys about that. We'll see you guys around, bye!" And with that, both Ariel and Rapunzel waved goodbye and headed back in their original direction.

"I never heard anything about a disappearance." Esmeralda said worriedly.

"Neither did I, but it's a good thing that they told us." Pocahontas said.

"Wait, so do they mean to say that exactly two years ago, these four girls were all freshmen at San Jose just like us when they all disappeared?" Meg asked.

"I would imagine, which means that they're only two years older than we are right now." Mulan replied.

"I'm still confused as to how absolutely _no one _has seen or heard from these four missing girls since they went missing." Shang said, still sounding confused.

"It does sound very suspicious though." John muttered.

"Well I guess it's good to be on alert about these things, but let's try not to dwell on this so much, the last thing we need is for all of us to be completely spooked and stressed about this on our summer vacation." Phoebus stated, as everyone agreed with him.

"It looks like it's getting a bit late, it's 5:15pm, we should get going back to our apartments before night falls." Shang suggested as he was looking at his watch.

"I agree, the last thing I need is to fall asleep in the grass while some psycho is out there." John said jokingly, queuing everyone in the group to immediately shoot him down glares and scowls.

"What? It was just a joke!" John said defensively, lifting his hands up in surrender.

"Not at a time like this, John." Pocahontas said in a firm tone, with everyone else agreeing as they all lifted themselves up from the grassy ground.

"She's right dude." Hercules agreed.

"Really John, how can you joke at a time like this when all of us are practically spooked out of our minds?" Meg demanded in annoyance.

"It was just a joke!" John defended.

"Whoa Meg, chill." Mulan said soothingly.

"Yeah, I mean don't get me wrong, we agree with you 100% that what John did was incredibly immature." Esmeralda said, shooting John with a glare. "But right now isn't that time to get all defensive about this.

"Meg, baby, she's right, just relax, okay?" Hercules reassuringly, as Meg was able to calm down.

"Fine." She muttered, as the eight friends began to make their along the path towards their apartments that they each rented for the school year, with all their rooms being on the exact same floor was one another, but however, the couples did share rooms together as well.

As they all continued to chat with one another about their summer vacation, all one could make out was the sound of their soft murmuring with another, everyone else was walking ahead, as Meg was the last of the group to hang just a few back, frowning as she was thinking deeply about what Ariel and Rapunzel had said back then, beginning to feel somewhat worried that maybe there was a reason for those four girls' disappearance, but what could that reason be?

Suddenly, Meg was caught off guard when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, the impact of the vibration against her hip was enough to cause her to jump slightly, quickly digging her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she pulled out her cellular device, her fingers quickly sliding the object open quickly as the brightness from the small screen reflected off of her face. As her eyes scanned the text message that she had received, it was then when Meg immediately stop dead in her tracks, remained frozen, her fingers beginning to tremble as she continued to keep her eyes glued to the screen, scanning over the black bold letters from the white background.

_From: Unknown_

_Roses are red, violets are blue. A gorgeous girl like you should not be walking by herself….otherwise, I will come and get you. _

"Meg!"

Suddenly hearing her name being yelled, Meg then shot her head up from her phone, realizing that the voice came from Mulan and the rest of the gang, as they all stopped in their tracks, and their curious gazes staring over their friend.

"Are you coming or what?" Phoebus called.

Sliding her phone closed and quickly shoving it back into her pocket, Meg quickly made her way to catch up with everyone as she ran quickly towards them.

"Hey you okay?" Esmeralda asked sympathetically.

"Yeah I mean, you looked like you'd just seen a ghost or something." Shang said.

"Y-yeah….I'm fine, just peachy." Meg responded quickly, her voice sounding slightly shaken.

"Are you sure?" Pocahontas asked.

"You look incredibly spooked right now." Mulan said.

"Baby, if anything is wrong, you know you can tell me, right?" Hercules said soothingly, as he wrapped his arm protectively around his girlfriend's waist, but Meg just shook her head, completely brushing it off her shoulders.

"I'm fine guys, really." Meg said reassuringly, but of course everyone still wasn't buying it, but they decided to leave it alone, as they all nodded and began to continue their way back to their apartment, while Meg on the other hand still felt uneasy and slightly shaken after receiving that strange and anonymous text message.

But what did that text mean? She thought to herself and why would they threaten her like that? These were questions that Meg could definitely not answer herself, and she could definitely not tell Hercules or anyone else about this, instantly thinking that it was obviously just a prank message from some low life jerk. Meg had the sudden urge to slowly peek over her shoulder, making sure that there was no sign of anything or anyone suspicious that may have been following the gang, which she was relieved to find that the coast was clear behind her, with seeing only the sight of students that were far back.

Sighing in relief, Meg turned to face the direction that everyone else was headed, with Hercules' arm still wrapped protectively around her waist. However, little did the gang know that a mysterious shadowy figure had been keeping tabs and a close watch on them ever since they stepped foot out of the school building.

* * *

**Feeling somewhat creped out yet? Anyways, what did you guys think? Love it? Hate it? If you loved it, show some love and R&R! They mean a lot! I'm so glad that I already have five follows and have received some positive feedback! Thank you so much guys, I want to send a shout out to foreverahleesha for being my first reviewer and follower, and I want to give another shout out to my two very best friends, supersmashkingdomhearts1999 and Suzernma! Thanks a ton guys! I love you all already! LOL! Anyways, don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Sooner or later in the blink of an eye, it had already hit 8:30pm as the bright sunlight was now slowly dying down, lowering back into its peak for the night and now all that was left to be seen was the now slightly lit moonlight that blanketed the entire city of San Jose. Although it was getting darker and darker by the minute, instead of it being a cool night, it was rather a warm night, as the warmth breeze made its way around the city, where every pedestrian was either currently out having a good time with one another, or currently locked inside their houses for some air conditioning. Either way, it was a warm night.

Since they all lived in the same apartment, the eight friends decided to gather all together in Phoebus' and Esmeralda's room, as they chatted and amongst themselves about their plans for the evening. Everyone was pretty much currently involved in the serious conversation, with Esmeralda and Shang agreeing they hit the beach for a late night stroll while the others simply complained and immediately disagreed. Hercules and Pocahontas suggested they drive to a nearby amusement park for the night, but of course, everyone automatically disagreed all over again, complaining that it would probably be too much money to pay for rides and food, not to mention games and such. Well pretty much everyone was currently engaged in the conversation, all except for one person in particular, Meg.

While the rest of her friends chatted and complained and argued with one another, Meg was currently tuning them out, as all she could make out were the muffled murmurs coming from her chatty friends, her mind was clearly on a whole different level, a more serious level perhaps. Right now, Meg slightly adjusted herself farther back from the rest of the group as she quickly pulled out her phone from her pocket, instantly sliding the cellular device open as the tiny bright light reflected off her face, her violet eyes still scanning over that mysterious text message she had received slightly earlier in the evening.

All Meg could think to herself was why this particular message was sent to her, and why _her _of all people would someone threaten her like this? But most importantly what Meg could not stomach down at the moment, was what did could this text message mean? Was it some sort of sign that maybe, just _maybe _something bad might happen to her? Could it have been just harmless prank that maybe someone took just a little bit too far? Or was this all real? As Meg continued to ask these questions in her head, her first instinct was to think that maybe one of the girls that disappeared two years ago could have possibly sent it, but how? If it did happen to be one of those girls, did they mysteriously disappear on purpose? All these questions flowed through her head, as she started blankly down at the bright white screen, her eyes following ever single word that was now on the screen, completely lost in thought and completely oblivious as to what was currently going on around her this very minute.

It wasn't long until Meg suddenly felt a strong and firm hand grasp her shoulder gently, as she instantly jolted awake from her thoughts, quickly snapping her phone shut as she shot her head up, realizing that she was only with her friends and that the hand belonged to Hercules, as the seven of them all stared at her confusion.

"What's up?" Meg asked her friends casually, as if she had no clue as to what was going on this very moment. The seven of them all exchanged confused glances with one another, but Esmeralda was the first to break the silence.

"Well um, since none of us can exactly agree on what we should do tonight, do you have any suggestions?" Esmeralda asked, her tone sounding slightly worried.

Meg thought for a brief moment, and simply just shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh um….I don't really know. Whatever you guys feel like doing is fine with me." She responded rather quickly, as all her friends continued to stare at her in confusion, but of course, Hercules looked the most worried out of all them.

"Meg, um, you okay?" Hercules asked carefully, as Meg just simply shrugged it off.

"Yeah, of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you've been awfully quiet the whole time since we got here." Shang said, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"Oh, yeah, I was just….thinking."

"Thinking? No offence but since when do you _ever _think deeply to yourself Meg?" Phoebus joked as he automatically expected some sort of sarcastic remark to slip right out of Meg's mouth, but was surprisingly shocked to see that she had just simply shrugged her shoulders again in response.

"I don't know…..I guess I should start learning someday…"

"Okay Meg, cut the crap, what is going on?" Esmeralda demanded firmly, as she automatically could tell that something was troubling her close friend.

"I told you, nothing is wrong, I'm fine!" Meg scolded quietly. "Besides, what you makes you all think that something is wrong with me?"

"Because Phoebus just blatantly insulted you –even if he was only joking- and you didn't throw any of your sarcastic remarks or insult him right back like you always do." Pocahontas said with concern.

"So what?"

"So? That's just usually not like you to not say anything back Meg, at all actually." John said, agreeing with Pocahontas' statement.

"You guys assume way too much, I'm _fine_! You don't have to worry about me, so let's just get back to our conversation about what we all want to do tonight." Meg said defensively, immediately ending this discussion, as the others simply just shook their heads, agreeing to take Meg's word for it and to just leave this discussion alone.

Esmeralda sighed. "Alright guys, let's get back to our plans for this evening."

Although Meg was glad to have this discussion done and over with, she still couldn't help feeling somewhat uneasy about this whole thing, as her thoughts instantly began to linger back to that mysterious and threatening text message. Deep down, Meg was trying to convince herself that it was only some sick prank that some low life decided to pull, but on the other hand, Meg couldn't help but think that maybe this text message was real, maybe it was from some psycho stalker, maybe it could have been from one of the guys from her lecture halls that she has seen but has never given any of them the time of day, simply because she had a boyfriend and was already taken, but on the other hand, men and guys weren't necessarily her priority at the moment, with Hercules being the exception to all of that.

"Why don't we all go to the gym tonight?" Mulan suggested. "I feel like getting a quick workout in you know, to release all the stress and tension I've been feeling in my back."

"I could help with that…" Shang said in a low husky voice as a grin formed on his face, causing Mulan to chuckle and playfully shove her boyfriend.

"Actually, the gym doesn't sound like such a bad idea." Hercules agreed. "I'm in, I could use a bit of a workout too."

"Yeah, I'm definitely with Hercules and Mulan on this one too." Shang agreed.

"The gym? Meh, I kind of feel like going to the movies or something." Esmeralda suggested.

"I wouldn't mind going to a movie either actually." Pocahontas piped in.

"Neither would I." Phoebus agreed. "I heard that '_Taken 2_' came out just last week, I've been really itching to see that one.

"_Taken 2_?" John asked excitedly. "I'm totally in for the movies; I've been dying to see that one!"

"Well why don't we take a vote, since the majority of us prefer a movie and the rest prefer to workout at the gym?" Esmeralda offered, as everyone agreed.

"Alright, well, who'd rather go to the gym?" Pocahontas asked, only to have Shang, Mulan and Hercules all raise up their hands.

"Alright, well who'd rather go to the movies?" Esmeralda asked as Pocahontas, John, Phoebus and herself raised their hands, which clearly meant that so far, the offer to the movies was going to be on the agenda for the night.

"Looks like heading to the movies is in the lead so far." John said.

"Wait, what about Meg?" Phoebus asked, nodding his head in Meg's direction, which still seemed oblivious as to what was going on around her.

"Meg?" Esmeralda called her friend's name.

"Mmm?" Meg asked as she casually looked at her friends.

"What do you want to do tonight?" Hercules asked his girlfriend, as Meg shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, what do we have planned so far?"

"So far Esme, John, Phoebus and I all want to go see a movie tonight." Pocahontas said.

"But Shang, Hercules and I prefer to go the gym instead." Mulan interjected. "So it's up to you, what would you rather do? Movies or Gym?"

"I would definitely prefer to go to the gym tonight, no offence guys but I could use the workout, I'm not really up for a movie tonight." Meg responded rather quickly, without any hesitation.

"Well I guess it wouldn't hurt if we all split up for the night." John said reassuringly as everyone agreed.

"Alright well we better get going if we want to get to the gym, it closes at 11:30pm." Shang said as he got up off the bed with Mulan instantly jumping off the bed and following behind him and grabbing onto his hand.

"Yeah Shang's right, we better get going." Hercules said as he got up from the bed, expecting to find Meg following behind him but was surprised to see that she still hadn't moved an inch from her spot.

"Uh Meg?" Hercules asked, as Meg instantly shot her head up in her boyfriend's direction. "You coming?"

"Yeah of course!" Meg replied cheerily as she jumped off the bed and followed Hercules towards the door.

"We'll see you guys soon! Have fun! Get a good workout in!" Phoebus called out to the four.

"We will! Have fun seeing _Taken 2_!" Hercules called back over his shoulder, grabbing Meg's hand as the four of them made their way out of the room, shutting the door right behind their backs.

"So we're all settled for _Taken _2 right?" John asked, making sure that everyone was on the same page, as he quickly relieved when the three of them nodded.

"For sure, I've been waiting for that movie to come out for a long time now." Phoebus said excitedly.

"Are the girls okay with it?" John asked as he turned to gaze at his girlfriend and Esmeralda hopefully, as they both sighed and nodded.

"Yeah why not? I mean, I don't mind seeing an action movie tonight." Esmeralda said.

"Well I'd choose _Taken 2_ over some horror movie, especially that new movie that just came out not too long ago." Pocahontas piped in.

"Oh you mean that new one, _House at the End of the Street_?" Esmeralda asked as Pocahontas nodded, her eyes widening in terror just at the thought of hearing the name of the movie.

"I would die if I saw that movie!" Pocahontas said fearfully.

"Oh please you won't die babe, I mean you can jump right into my lap and cuddle with me if you're that scared of the movie." John said playfully in a mocking baby tone, as Pocahontas shoved her boyfriend.

"Not funny John, and we are definitely _not _seeing that movie!" Pocahontas exclaimed, queuing laughs from the three friends, as Esmeralda hugged her friend protectively.

"He's just being an idiot right now." Esmeralda said quietly, nodding in John's direction as Pocahontas giggled in response.

"Oh trust me, I know."

"Hey!" John said defensively as the three of them shared another laugh.

"Actually now that you mention it John, maybe seeing _House at the End of the Street _isn't such a bad idea…" Phoebus said quietly to John, immediately taking him up on his offer as the both of them grinned devilishly.

"See, at least Phoebus agrees with me!" John exclaimed, a look of pure horror and terror immediately began to creep its way onto Esmeralda's and Pocahontas' faces, shaking their heads quickly.

"No, no and no! Absolutely not!" Esmeralda said firmly.

"Do you not want us to sleep tonight? Because I definitely won't be able to if we watch that movie tonight!" Pocahontas practically wailed, as both of the guys shared a laugh with one another.

"I don't know why you both think it's so funny; we're being very serious right now!" Esmeralda said.

"Wow, so we both will most likely have both our women in our laps during the entire movie and on top of that, there definitely won't be any sleeping tonight…hmm...I think we should definitely take advantage of that Phoebus….if you know what I mean?" John said playfully, eyeing his girlfriend up and down lustfully, with Phoebus instantly figuring out where exactly John was going with this as this caused a sly grin to form on his face, beginning to stare his girlfriend up and down also.

"What are they smiling about?" Pocahontas asked annoyed, as she scoffed.

Judging by the look she was currently getting from her boyfriend right now, it was clear that Esmeralda suddenly began to know exactly what those two had their minds at the moment, as this earned Phoebus as well deserved slap in the head.

"Ugh, you guys are so ridiculous!" Esmeralda cried out to Phoebus, with Phoebus laughing and snickering as she playfully shoved him. Of course, Pocahontas was completely oblivious as to what was going on the moment.

"I don't really get what's going on right now.." Pocahontas said, sounding somewhat confused. Esmeralda gave her a look of pity.

"Just take one good look at the way how your boyfriend is staring at you right now." Esmeralda responded matter of factly.

Furrowing her brow in confusion, Pocahontas slowly turned her confused gaze towards John as he continued to stare her down lustfully. As she kept her eyes on him, Pocahontas finally knew where he was getting at, and of course what that _stare _meant. Crinkling her nose in fake anger as she reached behind her and grabbed a pillow, it was then when Pocahontas whipped the pillow at John, square in the face as he hollered with laughter, tears pooling out of his eyes.

"Oh John, you can be such a pig sometimes!" Pocahontas wailed as whipped John with the pillow again, holding up his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay, I surrender!" John pleaded desperately, as Pocahontas started giggling herself, along with Esmeralda.

"Men." Esmeralda muttered under her breath.

"Well can you blame us men for being so physically attracted to our gorgeous girlfriends?" John asked jokingly, as Pocahontas rolled her eyes and chuckles.

"Yeah I mean we can't help it, it's not our fault that we're both with such beautiful women." Phoebus agreed, as he immediately grabbed Esmeralda by the waist and pulled her close towards him so that their faces were just inches apart.

"Whatever." Esmeralda muttered, as chuckled and gave Phoebus a small kiss on the cheek.

"Please, I'll give you a 'whatever'." John growled as he reached up and pulled Pocahontas down on top of him with such force that she squealed, claiming his lips with hers.

"Oh dude come on, not in here man!" Phoebus complained as Esmeralda laughed.

"What? You can have your fun but I can't?" John asked defensively.

"Not in our room you can't-!" Before Phoebus could finish, it was then when a strange sound was heard from right outside the window, as the four friends immediately turned their heads in that direction. None of them knew exactly what the sound was, but it was definitely a sound that neither of them has heard before in their lives.

"What was that?" Pocahontas asked quietly.

"I don't know, it sounded strange." Esmeralda responded, confused as she furrowed her brow in the direction of the window.

"It could probably have just been the wind you know." John said reassuringly, careful not to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

"That definitely did not sound like the wind at all." Phoebus said, gently unwrapping his arms from Esmeralda's waist and slowly making his way over towards the stained glass window that was blanketed with the darkness, as he took a brief peek outside through the window, his eyes scanning the darkness of the tree branches and outside view of the city from what he could make out. Surprisingly, the coast remained clear, as if nothing suspicious had just happened right about now.

"What do you see babe?" Esmeralda asked worriedly, as John and Pocahontas stood up from the floor and were now standing right behind Esmeralda. Phoebus just shook his head as he reached up and covered the window with the curtains, leaving it halfway open.

"Nothing, probably just some of those stupid teenagers from Oakland trying to play some sick prank on us or something." Phoebus replied, sounding somewhat annoyed.

"Are you sure you saw nothing or no one out there?" Pocahontas asked, sounding very worried at the moment.

"Yeah I'm positive; I mean the coast is clear out there." Phoebus reassured them.

"Don't worry babe, nothing will hurt you." John said soothingly to his girlfriend as Pocahontas quickly hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder.

"I don't know guys, I'm kind of feeling a little spooked right now." Esmeralda said, sounding somewhat tensed and worried.

"You guys, don't worry, like Phoebus said, it's probably one of those stupid teenagers from Oakland just trying to scare us." John said, hugging his girlfriend.

"John's right and besides, we don't want to be late for our movie anyways." Phoebus said.

Both Esmeralda and Pocahontas hesitated for a second, wondering if maybe even going to the movies at this time of the night was such a great idea, but then again, it would eventually calm things down right about now. Finally, Esmeralda sighed and relaxed, as did Pocahontas as they both nodded in agreement.

"Alright, well we better get going then." Esmeralda said as the rest of them agreed and nodded.

After they finally decided to agree to watch _Taken 2_, the four friends were currently making their way out of the little apartment room as Phoebus locked the door shut, of course little did they know a pair of mysterious eyes were currently in focus and strictly fixated right through Phoebus and Esmeralda's bedroom window.

* * *

9:00pm hit in the blink of an eye and Hercules, Meg, Shang and Mulan were all beginning to pile out of Shang's car as they headed towards the back of the trunk to retrieve their gym wear and some small equipment. Once they all retrieved their own bags, Shang slammed the trunk of his car shut, along with locking all the doors, satisfied to hear that familiar little _beep beep _alarm sound, signalling that his car was safely locked and no one could break in and the four of them began to make their into the building of _Silicon Valley Athletic Club_.

Although the club was somewhat pricey, Silicon Valley was known to be one of the best fitness clubs in San Jose. Usually, not a lot of people attend this club, however since the club offered a 50% student discount for the students that attended San Jose University, practically every single student took advantage and each got themselves full year memberships. However, since Hercules' parents happened to be close friends with one of the employers at the club, they managed to pull some strings and receive a good discount so that Hercules could join and of course since Meg loved working out along with Mulan and Shang, Hercules was able to get some discounts for his friends also. Ever since they managed to receive a great price for a membership, the four of them were practically at the gym almost every single day and night.

Once they all stepped foot inside the club, the four were automatically greeted by their fellow trainers and trainees from school, the four of them exchanging warm greetings with their fellow students as they all headed towards the change rooms, with the men's being on the left side and the women's on the right.

"So we'll see you guys in a couple of minutes?" Hercules said, as both Meg and Mulan nodded.

"Yup, see you guys soon!" Mulan chimed.

"Alright, don't stall like the both of you always do!" Shang called over his shoulder as Hercules chuckled, causing both Meg and Mulan to roll their eyes as they slipped inside the change room and instantly retrieved their lockers, which was at the far end from the entrance, but they both preferred to keep their belongings a safe distance away from some of the other women that occupy the change rooms also.

"So you excited about our trip in two weeks?" Mulan asked her friend as she wiggled into her lulu lemon shorts.

"Of course, are you kidding, it's Florida for crying out loud!" Meg beamed as she threw on her lulu lemon tights, causing Mulan to giggle.

"You can say that again." Mulan said. "I'm so excited to just relax and hit the beaches."

"You're telling me, I can't wait to come back with a golden tan so I can brag to my sister about it!"

Mulan giggled. "Never underestimate you and your tans."

"What? I love my tans! I mean, a girl's gotta love getting a tan, right?" Meg snickered.

"Is that all you're excited about?"

"Yup!" Meg beamed cheerily as threw on her tight fitted purple tank top that showed off her curves, along with her tights.

Mulan laughed and shook her head, throwing on her light blue fitted tank top, showing off her slim shape. "Of course, how could I have not guessed that from the very beginning?"

Meg laughed. "Oh whatever, I'm just glad that I get to spend the summer vacation with all of you guys, especially having a relaxing time with Hercules."

"I know me too, it will be great for Shang and I to get some alone time together…." Mulan trailed off sheepishly as she was just about finished tying up the laces of her sneakers.

Meg agreed as she sighed in delight, tying the last of the laces to her runners.

"Yup, I agree."

Once both the girls were finished preparing themselves for a good night's workout, silence filled the air between the two, with Mulan hesitating, as if she wanted to say something that's been on her mind for quite a while, but right now, she needed someone to talk this over with, so she finally gathered up the courage, and eventually spit it out.

"Hey Meg, I need to talk to you about something…" Mulan said quietly, as her cheeks turned bright pink.

Furrowing her brow in confusion, Meg curiously stared at her friend until she finally decided to answer her.

"Yeah sure, what's up?" She asked curiously as she grabbed her water bottle and towel from her bag.

Mulan let out a deep sigh and finally blurted it out without even thinking.

"Have you ever maybe…..considered….taking things to the next level with….Hercules yet?" She asked shyly, her face shuddering from pink to a deep shade of red.

Meg knitted her eye brows together. "Taking things to the next level? What are you talking about?"

"I mean…..have you….actually thought about….going _all the way_ with him yet?"

Finally realizing what her friend was getting at, this caused the heat to rush instantly to Meg's cheeks, blushing furiously as her face softened and all she did was let out a small, sheepish laugh.

"Um…to be honest…I _have _thought of it before…"

"You have?" Mulan asked slightly hopeful. "I'm just curious but….have you considered….going through with it?"

Blushing furiously, Meg sheepishly shook her head. "No actually, I mean, I guess I'm just happy where things are between us right now."

"Oh….that's a good thing too…."

"Since when were you suddenly interested in your friends' _intimate _lives?" Meg asked slyly, keeping a careful watch on Mulan as she sheepishly shrugged her shoulders.

"Just….curious I guess…"

"Just curious, huh?" Meg said in a somewhat disapproving tone. "But _why _all these mysterious questions?"

Mulan shrugged her shoulders. "Just a thought that came to my head." She said innocently.

"Mulan cut the crap, what is going on?"

"Nothing, can't a girl just ask a few questions?"

"And questions, you mean as in _intimately _related ones?"

"Yeah! Why not?" Mulan exaggerated in defense, as Meg did nothing but laugh.

"But seriously, what's up though?" Meg asked in a more serious tone.

Blushing furiously, Mulan sucked in a deep breath and finally had the courage to let it out.

"Okay, well….the reason I ask is because….I think I'm ready to take things to the next level with Shang." She explained sheepishly, causing Meg to widen her eyes in excitement, with a hint of worry deep inside.

"Really? You are?" Meg asked, sounding somewhat excited about the news.

Mulan nodded. "Yeah, I mean, I've been doing a lot of thinking about it lately."

Suddenly, Meg's smile slowly faded as she stared at her friend, beginning to feel somewhat worried about this whole thing.

"Mulan…" Meg hesitated. "How long have…you and Shang been together?"

"Two years, why?"

"It's just…do you think you've been together long enough to you know….take things to the next level?"

Mulan thought about this for a moment, before nodding her head slowly while shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, I mean two years is a while, right?"

Still, Meg felt somewhat uneasy about this. "I guess so….but Mulan you have to remember, I've been together with Herc for about three years and personally, I wouldn't rush into that _kind _of stuff yet."

"I know you've been with Herc longer than I've been with Shang but…I don't know Meg, I just….I feel like I'm ready to take that next step." Mulan explained intelligently as she bent down to retrieve her water bottle and towel from her gym bag.

"Well let me ask you this." Meg said carefully. "Do you think you….might love him?"

Hearing that question immediately caught Mulan off guard as she suddenly snapped her head up to look her friend right in the eye, silence filled the air between the two. Although her and Shang have been together for two years, the word _'love' _was still somewhat new to her, but after hearing Meg's question, it became clear to her that deep down, she loved Shang, she loved him with all her heart and maybe taking things to the next level could give her a chance to show Shang how much she really did love him.

As a soft smile appeared on her face, Mulan sheepishly nodded, while her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink.

"I do, I really do." Mulan said quietly. "Shang is the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I think this might give me an opportunity to show him how much I really do love him."

Meg smiled. "I'm glad to hear you say that, I mean don't get me wrong, I love Hercules with all my heart, but I guess I just want to wait a bit longer, just to see how things turn out in the near future."

"Hm….possibly until marriage?" Mulan asked coyly, as Meg blushed.

"Why not? It's not such a bad idea."

Mulan chuckled. "Of course it's not, I'm just joking!"

"Have you told Poca or Esme about this?"

Mulan froze, and then answered the question. "No."

Hearing her answer immediately surprised Meg, as she frowned in confusion and opened her mouth in shock.

"What? Are you serious?" Meg asked sounding surprised. "I figured Poca would be the first person you would tell right off the bat."

"Don't get me wrong, I love Pocahontas to death and she's my closest friend and everything, but I just wouldn't have the courage to tell her that." Mulan explained.

"And besides, you know how both Esmeralda and Pocahontas are, especially when it comes to the two of us." Mulan finished, as Meg sighed and rolled her eyes at the thought, shaking her head.

"You mean how both of them are so overprotective of the both of us that you could basically say that they act like our mothers?" Meg said sarcastically, as Mulan chuckled.

"Yes, exactly!" Mulan agreed. "That's why I didn't tell Pocahontas or Esmeralda, they would both flip out of their minds!"

"Of course they would, but I see where you're coming from." Meg explained. "I mean, you would probably be the best person to tell as opposed to me telling Esmeralda that I would plan to take things to the next level with Herc. Knowing her, she would freak out!"

Mulan laughed. "Obviously she would."

"I kind of hate the fact that we both have to keep something like this a secret from both of our closest friends."

"Well, it's for a good reason I guess, I mean of course you and I both know that they mean well and they both have a heart of gold, but sometimes they take things a little too over the top, ya know?"

"They do, I mean, my mom is easier going than Esmeralda is." Meg chuckled, as Mulan snickered.

"You think you have it bad? I thought my mom was bad but Pocahontas is worse than mine!"

"Definitely true!" Meg finished, but then her expression turned to a serious one. "But seriously Mulan, if you do decide to go along with all of this, just make sure you use….._protection._"

"Of course! I mean I don't plan on getting pregnant anytime soon!" Mulan joked, but Meg still looked serious.

"Seriously, promise me that you will be careful." Meg said, with a hint of worry to her tone. Mulan sighed and gave her friend a reassuring smile.

"I'll be fine Meg, don't worry about me." Mulan explained gently. "I'll take your word for it."

Meg smiled. "That's all I ask."

Realizing that bright red letters on the giant digital clock that hung on the wall read 9:20pm, the girls quickly grabbed their stuff, threw their bags inside their lockers and quickly made their out of the women's change room and headed towards the large workout area, which had a fairly decent amount of people, not too much and not too little, just the perfect amount, but of course, they didn't mind since the four of them usually come here on a daily basis so the amount of people here didn't really bother them, as they usually kept to themselves.

Once they both got inside the area, they quickly scanned the area in search of their boyfriends, only to have Meg point in the far left corner where she immediately spotted Hercules and Shang each bench pressing some weights, as both Meg and Mulan quickly made their way over towards the two guys.

"What took you guys so long?" Hercules asked, sounding somewhat out of breath as he huffed and puffed.

"Yeah I mean, you were both in there for twenty minutes." Shang piped in, also out of breath.

"We were just chatting." Mulan responded in an obvious tone.

"Yeah can't we girls have a quick little girl talk?" Meg asked sarcastically, causing both Hercules and Shang to roll their eyes and chuckle, of course they could never stay mad at their girlfriends.

"Anyways, Shang and I are going to do some more weights, what are you guys going to do first?" Hercules asked.

"The usual, warm up on the treadmill and then do some leg work." Mulan said.

"Alright well we'll be over here for a while if need us." Hercules said.

"Yeah, so are we all going to work on some abs afterwards?" Shang asked as the three of them nodded in agreement.

"Of course, I mean, we all have to get in shape if we want to look good and show off our beach bodies in Florida!" Meg piped in, queuing laughs from the three of them.

"Alright, well, we're going to head over to the treadmills for about twenty minutes." Mulan said. "We'll see you guys soon!"

Hercules and Shang nodded and immediately went back to bench pressing and lifting heavy weights, as both Meg and Mulan made their way over towards the treadmills, with only three available at the moment but thankfully, all three of them were right next to each other so it was easy for Mulan to just hop right onto the next one beside Meg, as they both began set which workout they wanted and immediately, they both fell into a nice and light jog. It wasn't long until after a few minutes, the music began blasting louder through the sound system all around the area. A familiar fast tune started playing and immediately, both Meg and Mulan began to quicken their pace on the treadmill to run in time with the beat.

In the blink of an eye, twenty minutes was up and Meg and Mulan ended their warm up on the treadmill as the both of them quickly hopped off and headed back towards Shang and Hercules, all of them prepared to begin their abs workout. As Hercules began to help Meg with leg raises and sit ups, it was then when Mulan realized that she had accidently left her water bottle back in the change room.

"Oh shoot, I forgot my water bottle back inside the change room. I'll be right back!" Mulan said as she quickly ran out of the work out area and began to make her way down the short hall, instantly coming in contact with the women's change room and quickly slipped inside.

Once she finally reached her locker at the far end and began unlocking it, Mulan quickly retrieved her water bottle as she just about ready to shut her locker when all of a sudden; she could hear her phone vibrating loudly within her gym bag. Curious, Mulan reached inside her gym and retrieved her cellular device. The screen read that she had received one text message. Debating on whether or not she should bother to read it or not, Mulan just brushed it off and quickly slid open her cell phone as she probably thought that it was a text from Pocahontas giving her heck for choosing the gym over the movies.

Right when Mulan slid open her cell phone and clicked the buttons to open her text message, it was then when Mulan's face suddenly froze as her brown eyes scanned over the bright white screen and the big black bold letters that covered it.

_From: Unknown_

_Those are some serious nuggets of wisdom that your friend gave to you, but she's right. I would seriously take her word for it, after all, I would deeply hate for anything tragic to happen to her….and most importantly….to you for that matter._

Continuously scanning over this anonymous text message, Mulan suddenly felt her heart beating right inside her chest, as she quickly snapped back to reality and began to frantically look all around the change room for anything suspicious, but to her relief, the change room was exactly like it was before, which somewhat felt odd to her, but a little relieved.

Mulan quickly shrugged this feeling off as she shook her head and threw her phone back in her gym bag, closing the locker door shut as she retrieved her water bottle and hurriedly made her way out of the change room, her mind was still preoccupied on that mysterious text message, but she tried to shake it off, not wanting Shang and the rest to know that something was up.

However, it never occurred to Mulan, or Meg for that matter that a certain figure had been currently keeping a close watch on the two from right inside the women's change room.

* * *

It was already 9:30pm, meaning that the movie didn't start until 9:50pm, with just enough to purchase tickets and snacks if anyone was hungry. Phoebus, Esmeralda, John and Pocahontas all piled out of John's car and quickly made their way inside the movie theater _AMC East Ridge 15_. Of course, every single person from San Jose University enjoyed attending this movie theater to watch movies, especially on a Friday night. Since it was such a big theater, it was the most popular theater in San Jose. But surprisingly, tonight was somewhat empty, which was probably due to the fact that most likely everyone was currently busy planning their summer vacations and such, but none of the minded at all.

Once they all stepped foot inside the building, Phoebus offered to pay for the tickets while John offered to buy the popcorn and the snacks for everyone. While that was being taken care of, Esmeralda quickly Pocahontas aside so they were right near the refreshment table.

"I'm kind of bummed that Mulan and Meg didn't come with us to the movies tonight." Pocahontas said, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"I am too, but it's a chance for us to get out with our boyfriends and such, just for the night." Esmeralda said, as Pocahontas nodded in agreement.

"Yeah you're right, and plus, its gives everyone a chance to just spend time separately together."

Esmeralda nodded in agreement. "Exactly, so let's just have a good time tonight, besides we can brag to the both of them about how awesome _Taken 2_ was."

Pocahontas laughed. "So true, and we can scold them for how they missed out on such a great night!"

Both girls shared some laughs with one another as they both gossiped about their best friends, and of course, how excited they were for their annual summer vacation to Florida in two weeks. They discussed how they both need a shopping spree day where they could purchase some new pieces of clothing, how they just had to book a day at the spa to get some manicures and pedicures, and of course, how they were both going to drag Meg and Mulan with them, no matter how much they both fussed and complained about they hated shopping and what not. As they shared another laugh, Phoebus came with tickets and as if on cue, John came just in time with the snacks and the drinks as he carefully carried everything in a plastic tray.

"You guys ready to go?" John asked, as the three of them nodded.

"Alright, let's head in so we can get to some good seats!" Phoebus announced excitedly as the three of them laughed and made their way down the hall, where the ticket lady pointed down to the right aisle. The four of them thanked her and made their down the hall but to their horror, they were immediately stopped as a long line of people was already in session and of course, it was obvious that this line-up just happened to be for none other than _Taken 2_.

Seeing this, the four of them all groaned in unison as they slithered their way into the line-up as they waited patiently.

"Are you kidding me? A line-up?" John complained.

"I swear this movie came out last week! How could there be a line-up on the second week it came out?" Phoebus asked, sounding annoyed and frustrated at the same time.

"Beat to me." Pocahontas said, her tone equally matching Phoebus'.

The four of them remained standing in silence, with the line only moving just about an inch in the last ten minutes, as the three of them chatted with one another, all except for Esmeralda, who seemed to be in deep thought about something.

"Hey Esme?" Phoebus called his girlfriend's name, as Esmeralda slowly looked up.

"Yup?" She asked.

"You okay? You've been really quiet for the past ten minutes." John said, but Esmeralda shook her head.

"Yeah I'm fine, I was just thinking."

"Thinking about what?" Pocahontas asked.

"About how strange Meg was acting tonight."

"Oh that, well now that you mention it, she was acting really strange tonight."

"Yeah you're right, I mean, she wasn't acting like herself at all." Phoebus piped in, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"What was up with her anyways?" John asked, but Esmeralda shook her head, not knowing how to answer that question herself for that matter.

"I don't know, I mean, it wasn't like her to just bail on going to the movies with us tonight." Esmeralda said.

"Yeah, Meg usually loves coming to the movies, especially on a Friday night." Pocahontas said, feeling just as confused as Esmeralda was.

"That is true." Phoebus said. "And what was up with her just randomly zoning out like that?"

"I know, I mean I'm not going to lie, that was pretty creepy." John replied.

"Maybe that story that Ariel and Rapunzel told us earlier really spooked her out." Pocahontas insisted.

"Probably.." Esmeralda said in deep thought. "But Meg is my best friend, I know her a lot better than that, and I know for sure that something is definitely going on that she just doesn't want to tell us about."

"I'm sure if something was wrong with her she would automatically tell you Esme, I mean I know Mulan can tell me anything too and not keep secrets from me because she's my best friend, and plus, it wouldn't be right for the both of them to keep something hidden from us." Pocahontas explained as Esmeralda agreed.

Upon hearing his girlfriend's statement, John did nothing but snicker softly, with Phoebus joining in with him as well. Confused, both Esmeralda and Pocahontas both exchanged glances with one another, as they furrowed their brows at their boyfriends.

"I'm sorry, is something amusing the both of you right now?" Esmeralda asked, cocking her eyebrow.

"Yeah, is there something that you both would like to share with us?" Pocahontas pressed as she also raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well after you made that statement Poca, there could be a reason why sometimes Meg and Mulan could keep secrets from the both of you." John said.

"How could you say that John? Mulan is my best friend! I know she would never keep any secrets from me!" Pocahontas scolded.

"Exactly, and Meg is my close friend, if there was ever a problem, I would automatically be the first one to know!" Esmeralda agreed angrily.

"Esme, baby, relax." Phoebus said soothingly. "But, I kind of have to agree with John on this one."

Esmeralda and Pocahontas both shot Phoebus an angry glare, their angry eyes boring deep into his.

"What are you talking about?" Esmeralda asked through gritted teeth.

"Well, for starters, you guys are…..a little bit overprotective of the both of them…" Phoebus started.

"A little bit?" John asked, exaggerating. "They practically smother them to death!"

"We do not!" Pocahontas said defensively.

"You really don't think the both of you treat them just a little bit like babies?" Phoebus asked, grinning, only to have Esmeralda smack him in the arm.

"Obviously we don't!" Esmeralda argued.

"Are you serious? Come on, you both practically baby them more than their own mothers do!" John piped in, earning him a well-deserved slap in the head.

"We just care about them a lot, and we want them to know that they can tell us anything if there's a problem." Pocahontas said firmly.

"Maybe they just need their space." Phoebus said calmly, in an understanding tone, but Esmeralda and Pocahontas just sighed and rolled their eyes.

"Whatever, but I'll talk to Meg about it tomorrow." Esmeralda said.

"Well how about we just focus on getting into this movie and we'll talk more about this tomorrow." John suggested, as everyone agreed and nodded.

Soon, the line began to move and pretty soon, everyone was just making their way inside the theater where they all claimed their seats. Lucky for the four friends, they were able to score the seats at the very back, right in the middle where they were able to get the perfect view of the moving images on the giant screen, completely forgetting all about their conversation they had earlier.

Pretty soon, it was about half an hour into the movie, where Phoebus and John were both enjoying themselves and whispering excitedly to one another about the intense action scenes. It wasn't long until Pocahontas decided that she needed to go to the washroom quickly so Esmeralda offered to accompany her as the two girls quickly made their out of the theater and headed down the hall in search of the washroom.

Right when Pocahontas spotted the women's washroom, she was just about to head inside when she realized that Esmeralda was not following behind her. Confused, Pocahontas turned around, only to find Esmeralda stopped right in her tracks, her emerald eyes glued to the wall as if she was witnessing something tragic.

"Esme?" Pocahontas called. "Are you coming?"

"Poca, look." Esmeralda said quietly as she pointed towards the wall.

Confused, Pocahontas went over to Esmeralda and immediately focused her attention right on the wall that was in front of her, expecting to find some measly little scratch but to her surprise and shock, this part of the wall was not bare, as it showed pictures and signs. But these weren't any ordinary pictures, no, these were pictures of four young women. One was beautiful with dark skin with thick black hair, the other was also beautiful with olive tanned skin with gorgeous long silky black hair while the last two had pale skin and long brown hair. From what Esmeralda and Pocahontas could tell just from looking at these pictures, these young women looked so happy and innocent, as each of them flashed such vibrant and breath taking smiles in their pictures. It was clear that these pictures were probably for their student ID cards for University.

As the two women remained staring at these four pictures in silence, Pocahontas was the first to break it.

"Are these….the four girls that Rapunzel and Ariel told us about….earlier today?" Pocahontas asked, sounding somewhat spooked.

"You mean the ones that went missing two years ago….I would say so." Esmeralda said slowly, her voice slightly shaken.

"Look, it says at the bottom of each picture that their names are….Belle O'Hara, Jane Driver, Jasmine Larkin and Tiana Rose."

Pocahontas pointed to the bottom of each picture, squinting her eyes to see the small fine print that read each of their names.

"Look at this; it says that these four girls were last seen on March 8th, 2010. Police say that it was reported by their boyfriends and family members that they all mysteriously disappeared exactly one week before their Spring Break trip to San Diego. Police say that so far, they've had no luck finding them and to this very day, the search still continues."

"So you're saying that absolutely no one knows where they are." Pocahontas said, sounding worried.

Esmeralda nodded. "Wow, Ariel and Rapunzel weren't kidding when they said that no one has heard from them….that's a little creepy…and suspicious, don't you think?"

"I'll say." Pocahontas replied. "I just hope the police or someone finds them soon."

"Me too, I mean, imagine how their families are feeling." Esmeralda said sadly as Pocahontas nodded in sympathy.

"And not to mention, imagine how their boyfriends are feeling about all of this too."

"I know." Esmeralda sighed. "Well, we better hurry up and go to the washroom so we can get back to watching the movie."

"Yeah come on! Let's hurry!" Pocahontas said quickly as she dragged Esmeralda inside the washroom.

As she waited for Pocahontas to finish up, Esmeralda couldn't help feeling uneasy and painfully worried about this whole thing, seeing those pictures of those four missing women, and the fact it's been two years since they were last seen around San Jose was beginning to frighten her. But deep down, Esmeralda tried to concentrate on being positive as opposed to thinking negatively about this whole thing. She tried to focus on how much fun she and her friends were going to have in Florida, but deep down, Esmeralda couldn't help having this strange feeling that something bad was just around the corner.

* * *

**What did you guys think? I know you all are somewhat on the edge of your seats waiting for the good stuff to happen, but I promise, it will come sooner that you know it! As always, I want to give a big shout to my amazing reviewers, foreverahleesha, Wolf's Willow, queenbeautyhair and my two best friends, supersmaaskingdomhearts1999 and Suzerenma! Thanks so much guys! There will be plenty more to come! Don't forget to show some love and R&R!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

A few days had passed and the trip to Florida was getting closer and closer by the minute with each day that passed. Pretty soon, it will be exactly a week from today until the entire gang would leave for their summer vacation. So far, things around San Jose have been somewhat ornate, however on the other hand, more and more of the citizens became aware of the news of the disappearance of the four young women. Suspicion has adequately risen around the entire town, including multiple signs and pictures that have been plastered on every single wall or building or even a stained a glass window to alert every single citizen that the search is still continuing.

As everyone else was minding their own business and currently planning their own vacations, the gang decided to split up for the day. While the guys chose to go out for a beer and watch the hockey game, the girls decided to head on over to _Eastridge Mall_ –well, Esmeralda and Pocahontas agreed on that option-, of course both Mulan and Meg groaned and complained but sooner or later, they stubbornly gave in, due to the fact that neither of them had anything better planned but most importantly, the main fact was because neither of them wanted to be left alone, since they both had their fair share of receiving suspicious unknown text messages a few days earlier. However, neither of them bothered to share with anyone that they've received threatening messages, not even to each other, but the last thing that they both wanted was to worry their friends and boyfriends, so they both decided to keep that to themselves.

It was around 4:30pm early in the evening, and the four girls were still currently found inside the mall, with Meg and Mulan growing border and border by the minute, especially since both Pocahontas and Esmeralda were both such shopping addicts, one could definitely say that they were both truly Fashionistas. After spending at least two hours in each store, from _Aeropostale_, to _Bath & Body Works, _to _Guess, _to _Nina's _to _Papaya _and _Forever 21_, the four of them came to an agreement that it was definitely time to call it a day and head out to get something to eat, which definitely caught Meg and Mulan's attention as they quickly agreed and began to make their way out of the mall towards the entrance/exit.

As Esmeralda and Pocahontas gossiped excitedly about their new purchases while Meg and Mulan on the other hand were quickly making a bee line towards the exit doors, it was then when Pocahontas stopped dead in her tracks, shooting her head in the direction towards her right as she realized that she just stopped in front of what looked like some sort of drugstore, which was perfect for the last purchase that she needed.

"Hey guys wait!" Pocahontas called towards her friends, with Esmeralda turning back and heading towards Pocahontas, while Meg and Mulan sighed and groaned deeply in unison.

"I just need to pop in here quickly for some face cream." Pocahontas said, pointing towards the drugstore.

"Poca, can't that wait?" Mulan complained.

"Yeah, I mean we're starving!" Meg groaned.

"But I really need to get some cream for my face!" Pocahontas said. "I promise I'll be quick!"

"Actually, now that you mention it, I almost forgot, I just remembered that I need some Advil for my migraines that I've been getting lately." Esmeralda said.

"Esme! Really?" Meg practically wailed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Oh you guys stop acting like babies!" Pocahontas scolded. "We'll get your food as soon as we find what we're looking for in here."

"Yeah and plus, we'll be quick!" Esmeralda said soothingly. "I promise."

Mulan sighed in defeat. "Fine, we'll come with you guys."

Upon hearing this, bright smiles immediately plastered on Esmeralda and Pocahontas' faces as they both made their way inside the small store, while Mulan on the other hand had to practically drag Meg inside until she finally gave in and stubbornly followed Mulan and the others inside.

* * *

While both Pocahontas and Esmeralda had finally found their pieces of items that they were looking for and were now currently waiting in line to pay for the items, it was then when something suddenly caught Mulan's eye, widening in slight excitement as she finally discovered the most important thing that she needed. Mulan was just about ready to dash over there and quickly grab the item right off the shelf, but suddenly she remembered that Esmeralda and Pocahontas were both in near sight and the last thing she wanted was for the both of them to completely freak out on her in public with curious eyes wandering in their direction.

Since the two of them seemed to be preoccupied at cash register, while Meg on the other hand looked completely bored out of her mind and decided to occupy herself with her IPhone –which she was probably texting Hercules at the moment- Mulan decided to use this as opportunity to quietly and subtly sneak away from her friends and retrieve what she needed. Taking one last look at her friend, Mulan quietly began to slide her right foot backwards, and then her left, and then her right, as she was already beginning to near away from the three of them. Once she felt she was a safe distance away, she quickly ducked into the aisle and sheepishly made her way down, her eyes scanning the variety of medications and lotions down the aisle, desperately searching and searching for what she needed, her mind instantly drifting back to the conversation that she had with Meg in the change rooms back at the gym, about her relationship with Shang, where Meg had strongly encouraged her to get the most important thing that she needed.

Finally from what seemed like hours, it was then when Mulan finally spotted the item, butterflies beginning to form inside of her stomach as she stopped right in her tracks, staring right at the item in front as it stared right back at her. Clearly, to her the item was calling out to her, begging for her to just grab it off the shelf and buy it already, but there were just so many of them, which began to make Mulan feel somewhat self-conscious, feeling the heat rushing to her face as her heart started beating violently inside of her chest.

'_What are you waiting for? Just grab the stupid box already!'_

She scolded herself quietly. Her palms were beginning to sweat and her legs were all shaky. Sighing deeply, Mulan slowly began to reach her hand towards the box and quickly snatch it up from the shelf, as she was in mid reach when….

"What are you doing?"

A voice asked curiously behind Mulan as she suddenly froze, her eyes widening in terror and her heart beating violently inside of her chest, squeezing her eyes shut tightly, cursing under her breath as she was just about ready to expect a very angry Pocahontas right behind her. Sucking in a deep breath, Mulan snapped her eyes open and quickly spun on her heel towards the person who she least expected to see, which was none other than Meg, who had her arms crossed over her chest with a sceptically look on her face.

"Meg? What are you doing here?" Mulan asked, sounding somewhat surprised, yet very relieved to see that it was her.

"Well I was standing in line texting Hercules, when I was just about to ask you where you wanted to eat and the next thing I knew, you were gone, completely disappeared, so I came looking for you."

"Oh…..yeah you see about that…." Mulan began. "I….I saw something that I….needed and I….well…"

Upon hearing this, a sly grin formed on Meg's face as she peaked over Mulan's shoulder towards the items on the shelf behind her and automatically realized exactly what Mulan was looking for.

"Ohh…." Meg said slyly. "Now I know what this is about…"

Heat began rushing to Mulan's cheeks as she sheepishly put her head down, staring down at her feet.

"Mulan, it's okay to feel embarrassed, I mean it's going to be your first time so don't be so hard on yourself."

"Yeah I guess you're right." Mulan mumbled quietly.

"Have you talked to Shang about this yet?"

"No….I haven't actually."

Upon hearing this, Meg's eye suddenly grew insanely wide as she opened her mouth in shock, her jaw literally dropping to the ground.

"Mulan are you crazy?" Meg hissed. "Why haven't you brought this up to him yet? You need to talk to him about this!"

"I know, I know, you're right!" Mulan hissed back in defeat. "I'm just…a little nervous to bring this up to him."

"Look, I know you're nervous, but you need to tell about him about this soon."

"I know and I will! I'm just waiting for the right time."

Meg stared at Mulan in fear. "Please tell me you're not planning on waiting until the day before we leave for Florida to tell him about this!"

Hearing this, Mulan quickly shook her head. "Obviously not! Please Meg, I'm not that crazy! I'll probably tell him tomorrow or something."

"Well, you better do it soon because if you don't…..then I will." Meg said slyly with a wicked smirk.

Mulan just stared at her friend as if she just witnessed a murder of some sort, looking as terrified as ever as she immediately shot Meg with a piercing glare.

"You wouldn't!" She hissed, as Meg chuckled.

"Oh I think we all know that…I would, honey." Meg chortled jokingly, as Mulan's eyes clouded with anger, clenching her fists by her side tightly, until her knuckles turned white.

"Meg, you better run for your life in a few minutes…" Mulan threatened, as Meg laughed at her friend's reaction and held up her hands in surrender.

"I'm kidding, chill, I wasn't actually thinking of doing it!"

Hearing this, all the blood and heat began to pour of out of Mulan slowly, as she sighed in relief, while Meg was laughing quietly.

"Don't _ever _scare me like that again!"

At this point, the two girls currently shared laughs with one another, but soon, their laughter began to slowly die down, with Meg immediately going back to looking serious as she was before.

"But seriously though, you should tell him soon, just so he doesn't freak out on you."

"I will, don't worry." Mulan said, as she waved her hand dismissively, while Meg just chuckled and shook her head.

"Anyways, hurry up and grab the box so we can get out of here!"

"Right, okay!" Mulan suddenly remembered as she snatched the box quickly and shoved it into her pocket, in case she suddenly ran into Esmeralda and Pocahontas and the last thing she wanted was for the both of them to witness what was in her hand.

"Alright, I got it, let's go."

Just as Mulan was ready to head down the aisle, it was then when she realized that Meg's footfalls were no longer in progress as she stopped in her tracks and turned back in her friend's direction, knitting her eyebrows together in confusion as she stared Meg up and down, waiting for her to at least make some sort of movement.

"Meg, are you-?"

Before Mulan could finish her question, it was then when she noticed that Meg has also decided to snatch a box off the shelf as well and quickly shoved it into her pocket, with Mulan staring at her in shock, her eyes widening and her mouth hanging wide open as Meg quickly began to follow in Mulan's direction.

"What?" Meg asked.

Just then, Mulan tilted her mouth into a sly grin as she stared Meg up and down curiously, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I thought you said that you were going to wait until….oh I don't know…._marriage_!" Mulan said slyly, as Meg blushed.

"So? A girl can change her mind you know!" Meg said, defending herself playfully as Mulan chuckled and shook her head.

"Whatever, let's just hurry up and purchase these before Esme and Poca find us with these."

Meg nodded as the two of them quickly made their way down the aisle and headed towards the line, which had strangely gotten shorter, making it quicker for the customers to get what they need and just be on their way in the blink of an eye. Once they were in line, much to their horror, Esmeralda and Pocahontas were just about finished paying for their items and quickly made their way out of the line to let the next customer through, which made things seem a little bit more difficult for Meg and Mulan, since their plan has now backfired.

"Alright you guys, ready to-?"

Esmeralda hadn't gotten the chance to finish her question when she instantly spotted Meg and Mulan in the line-up, with the heat rushing to both of their faces as both their palms began to sweat.

"What are you guys doing in line?" Pocahontas asked curiously.

Meg and Mulan exchanged quickly glances with one another, thinking of way to come up with some sort of excuse, but it seems as if Mulan already had the upper hand as she quickly came up with something, turning towards her friends and smiling casually.

"Oh um….you see Shang and Hercules texted the both of us earlier today….and they asked for Meg and me to buy them something from here….." Mulan began to trail off.

Esmeralda and Pocahontas exchanged sceptical glances with one another, as if they knew exactly what their two friends were up to, as if neither of them were buying Mulan's story at all.

"To get something?" Pocahontas asked sceptically.

"And what exactly is this…._something…_" Esmeralda made air quotes around the word 'something', "they needed for the both of you to get them?"

Before Mulan could stutter and trip over her words, Meg was quick to jump in and rescue her.

"Muscle cream." Meg said innocently. "You see, since they both work out so much, their muscles tend to get sore….so they asked us to buy them this….muscle cream to help…..ease off the pain a bit."

"Yeah….what she said." Mulan piped in.

"Oh that thing!" Pocahontas said, realizing exactly what they were referring to. "I know what you're talking about, John uses that too sometimes."

"Yeah so does Phoebus." Esmeralda agreed. "Why didn't you guys just tell us that in the first place?"

"Oh because….Hercules and Shang tend to be….very insecure to talk about it…" Meg explained.

"What she said….again." Mulan agreed quickly.

"Okay well, we'll be right outside if you need us." Pocahontas said as she and Esmeralda stepped outside the drugstore and waited patiently for their friends, with Meg and Mulan both sighing in relief.

* * *

"I'm not sure if it's just me, but Meg and Mulan seem to acting stranger than usual." Pocahontas said, as Esmeralda nodded her head in agreement.

"Yeah I mean back in the line-up, what was that all about?"

Pocahontas shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but it seemed as if they were trying to hide something from us."

"You think?"

"As much as I want to say no, I think they are."

Esmeralda thought about this for a second. "But what could they be hiding from us though?"

"Beats to me."

"Well, I guess we can talk about this to them when go out to eat." Esmeralda suggested, as Pocahontas nodded her head in agreement.

It was then when Pocahontas felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her sweater, the light on her phone was flashing as she pulled the cellular device out of her pocket, using her fingers to slide the phone open as the bright light reflected off of her face, her eyes scanning over the black bold print on the white background, realizing that the text came from none other than John, her eyes widening in horror.

_From: John_

_Get down here quick! There are cop cars and ambulances surrounded around where we are right now!_

"What's wrong?" Esmeralda asked worriedly and right on cue, Mulan and Meg quickly exited the drugstore and made their way towards their friends.

"It's from John." Pocahontas said quietly. "Supposedly there's a swarm of police cars and ambulances around the area where they are right now!"

"What are you serious?" Esmeralda asked, sounding extremely worried right about now.

"What happened?" Mulan asked her friend as she put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know, John didn't tell me!"

"Do they know what it's about it?" Meg asked, but Pocahontas shook her head.

"No they don't, all John said was that we need to get down there quickly!"

"Well come on, we have to hurry if it's that bad!" Esmeralda said with great concern as the rest of them agreed and quickly made their way towards the exit doors. However, little did the four young women know that a certain dark shadowy figure was currently watching them scurry towards the exit, as it peered slightly from behind the tall green fake plants, keeping their eyes glued to their backs.

* * *

It was currently around 5:15pm, the sun was just about to rise back down to its peak, with the yellows and oranges and the pinks shining brightly throughout the city. A minute had passed and the girls had just pulled up towards _Trials Pubs_ in Esmeralda's car as the flashing lights of red, blue and green reflected off of the buildings and the numerous citizens that were surrounding around the commotion in the middle of the roads, which were currently being blocked off at the moment as this caused an immediate traffic jam, with the yellow caution tape signs all circled around the area.

John and the guys were definitely not kidding around when they mentioned that they were surrounded by a swarm of police cars and ambulances. The four young women stared at through the window in terror, their eyes bulging out of their sockets and their jaws were dropped to the ground, staring wide eyed at crowded citizens and orange and red and white lights of the numerous amount of ambulances and the sounded of the beaming sirens echoed throughout the city.

The girls quickly hopped out of the car, locking it shut as the four of them headed towards the crowd and tried to squeeze their way through, which was extremely impossible at the beginning, but that didn't stop them from trying to desperately get to where their boyfriends were at the moment, seeing as they were all somewhere deep inside the crowd.

As they formed a chain, with Esmeralda taking the lead as they all grabbed onto each other's hands, it was then when they were finally nearing towards the very front of the crowd, where Pocahontas was able to stand on her tip toes and finally spot a glimpse of blonde hair, which definitely belonged to John as she was able to spot Phoebus along with Hercules and Shang who were gathered around in the front as they all watched what was happening in front of them in horror and shock.

"Found them!" Pocahontas yelled to her friends as they continued to squeeze their way in the crowd. "John!"

Of course, neither of the young men could hear their girlfriends screaming out to them, as they all stood froze in their places, not even making a single movement, as if their feet were nailed to the ground permanently.

Finally, the four young women had made it towards the front of the crowd as they all rushed towards their boyfriends.

"John, I got your text, what's going on?" Pocahontas asked frantically, grabbing onto his arm protectively.

Sighing deeply, John forced himself to tear his eyes away from the brutal scene that was happening in front of him as he looked down at Pocahontas, his face had gone pale white as if he had seen a ghost of some sort, but much worse, while Hercules, Shang and Phoebus all had looks of horror plastered on their faces.

"That's what's going on." John replied in monotone, pointing his finger in the direction straight ahead of him.

Confused and slightly worried, Pocahontas began slowly turned her head in the direction in which John was pointing, her gaze following his finger as she suddenly witnessed what looked like a tragedy that never thought she would ever have to see in her life. To hers and the rest of the gang's horror, it was then when the eight friends witnessed a swarm of police officers and paramedics all huddled together in the middle of the street beside a nearby bush, suddenly watching as the paramedics were currently wheeling not one but four dead bodies that were covered from head to toe in none other than black body bags as they were currently being wheeled and lifted inside the ambulance. At first, absolutely no one knew the identities of the bodies, nor did anyone know where or how they were found.

"Oh my god!" Esmeralda gasped in shock as she smacked her hand over her mouth and desperately grabbed onto Phoebus, who had his arm wrapped protectively around her waist.

"Yeah…..that's what we said when this all happened." Shang said in monotone, his voice was slightly shaken but he never took his eyes off what was happening in front of him, as he clutched Mulan closer towards him, hugging her tightly, who was also shaken up as well.

"Does anyone know who found them?" Esmeralda asked in subtle fear, not being able to take her eyes off of this brutal scene.

"We don't know." Phoebus replied. "One minute, we were all drinking some beer and watching the hockey game and then the next thing we know, we hear people screaming and yelling in terror and then, we end up seeing four dead bodies being placed on gurneys."

"Do they know who these people are?" Mulan asked sounding frightened.

"Not at the moment, but I have a feeling I know what's about to happen next." Hercules said in slight fear, with Meg slowly tearing her eyes away from the scene as she grabbed onto Hercules desperately, her fingers grasping the front of his shirt as he hugged her closer, with Meg burying her head in his shoulder.

"I can't watch this." Meg whispered, keeping her eyes off what was going on in front of her.

"You guys don't think that…..these bodies belonged to…." Pocahontas trailed off, not wanting to finish her question as she had a deep feeling she knew what the answer was going to be.

"Oh gosh, no!" Esmeralda breathed.

"I really hope not." John said sadly.

Feeling her eyes beginning to well up with tears, Pocahontas had forced herself to tear her eyes away from seeing those four dead bodies being wheeled away in an ambulance, knowing full well who these bodies belonged to, but she did not dare force herself to admit it.

All of sudden, it was then when Esmeralda immediately caught a glimpse of golden blonde hair and bright red hair who were standing just a few feet away from them as she instantly recognized exactly who those two people were.

"Rapunzel! Ariel!" Esmeralda called.

After hearing their names being called, both Ariel and Rapunzel turned their heads back into the direction their names echoed, realizing that the voice belonged to Esmeralda as they both quickly made their way over towards the gang, with saddened expressions plastered on both their faces.

"Hey Esme." Ariel said, the tone in her voice sounding somewhat sad but frightened.

"What's going on?" Hercules asked.

"Whose bodies are those that the police and the paramedics found?" Shang asked.

Ariel sighed and put her head down in shame and disappointment, as Rapunzel gave the rest of the gang a pity look, sighing heavily and finally opened her mouth to speak.

"Remember those four girls that we told you about that disappeared two years ago?" She asked quietly, as the eight friends nodded their heads, fear and anxiety beginning to grow inside their bellies.

"Well…." She began again, trailing off.

"You mean…..t-they….?" Mulan stammered, her voice shaking as she lifted her hand up and pointed her finger in that direction towards where the bodies were currently being withheld.

Both Ariel and Rapunzel exchanged sad glances with one another, and then focused their attention back on the gang in front of them as they both slowly nodded their heads.

"Oh my god, please don't tell me…." Esmeralda began frantically. "T-those four bodies…..t-that's….them?"

Rapunzel nodded. "Yeah, that's them alright."

Esmeralda and Pocahontas both gasped in unison, their eyes widening in sadness and terror, with Meg and Mulan quickly tearing their eyes away from the scene in front of them, not being able to take any more of this tragedy, while the young men on the other hand had looked like they had just seen a ghost of some sort, their faces turning pale white, but neither of them wanted to show any sign of fear, since it was now their jobs to protect their girlfriends.

"Are you serious?" John asked sounding shocked, as Ariel nodded.

"Yeah. Rapunzel and I decided to take a walk down here for a bit, until we heard someone screaming."

"Yeah, they were screaming that they somehow found their bodies stashed deep inside that bush over there." Rapunzel said as she pointed towards the bush that was across the road behind her, where the bright yellow caution tapes were currently circled around.

"It's obvious that some psycho maniac murdered the four of them." Ariel said.

"Was it gruesome?" Phoebus asked, slightly scrunching up his face at the thought of picturing such a gruesome image in his head.

Ariel flinched slightly at Phoebus' question. "From what we heard….it was…slightly gruesome."

"How gruesome exactly are we talking?" Shang asked.

"It wasn't….insanely gory or anything." Rapunzel piped in. "But, it was pretty brutal from what we heard so far."

"Are any of their family members present right now?" Hercules asked, but Rapunzel shook her head.

"Not from what we see."

"But we did see these four guys that were yelling, screaming and crying." Ariel said. "We're assuming those guys were their boyfriends."

"Are they still here?" John asked.

"They ran off, they couldn't bring themselves to even go near their bodies, it was too much for them."

"Do you know where they went?" Phoebus asked.

Rapunzel shook her head. "They just ran down the street, but no one knows where they were headed."

"So I'm assuming no one knows who did this to them, right?" Hercules asked, as both Ariel and Rapunzel nodded.

"Wow." Shang said, sounding frightened. "This is just crazy."

"If by crazy, you mean scary and suspicious?" John said.

"I just feel terrible for their parents and family members when they find out about this horrible news." Ariel said sadly.

"I feel so bad for their boyfriends, I mean, this whole thing was pretty tough on them, imagine how scarred they are going to be after having to see this." Rapunzel chimed in.

"Guys, can we just get out of here already?" Meg asked desperately, keeping her eyes off the scene in front of her.

"Yeah Meg's right, this is too much for us to handle right now." Mulan agreed, keeping her head buried in Shang's shoulder.

"Yeah, w-we should get going." Pocahontas agreed, tugging on John's arm.

"I agree, we should go." Esmeralda said quickly. "I-I guess…we'll see you guys around sometime."

Rapunzel and Ariel nodded, their saddened expressions still plastered on their faces.

"Yeah, we'll see you guys around." Rapunzel said as the two made their way back towards the crowd to see what was currently happening next.

The gang stared in terror, not being able to move from their spots, feeling as if the scene in front of them was keeping them glued to where they were standing currently, but of course Meg and Mulan had absolutely no problem whatsoever as they were the first to drag Hercules and Shang away from the scene, the four of them squeezing their way through the crowded citizens.

Soon, John and Pocahontas decided to join them as they also made began to squirm through the crowd, with John gripping onto Pocahontas' waist as he guided her through, leaving Phoebus and Esmeralda still remaining glued to the ground, not being able to take their eyes off the brutal scene in front of them. Esmeralda desperately gripped onto Phoebus' arm, as he looked down at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"It will be okay, don't worry." Phoebus reassured her gently, as he grabbed her hand and began to guide her through the crowd, the two of them squeezing their way through the swarm of people.

Once they were finally able to squeeze their way out, the couple quickly made their way towards Esmeralda's car, where the rest of the gang was currently waiting at the moment. Phoebus was already a few feet away from Esmeralda, as she was beginning to slowly lag behind him, her mind was already beginning to fill up with those brutal and tragic images that she had just witnessed about a few minutes ago, witnessing how those four missing young women that disappeared two years ago had now been found dead, gone in an instant. Esmeralda one thing, she was beginning to grow scared and worried at the fact that there must be some crazy psycho lunatic out there who got away the murders of those four women. Esmeralda couldn't help but wonder why did such a horrible thing have to happen to four innocent young women? And of all people, why did this have to happen to them? Even though she didn't know them personally, she still felt as though that they did not deserve something like this to happen to them.

Suddenly, it was then when Esmeralda was instantly brought back to reality as she felt her phone vibrating inside of her pocket, feeling the sudden impact against her ribcage was enough to snap her out of her thoughts as she stopped in her tracks, digging her hands inside of the pocket of her jacket as she finally retrieved her IPhone. Pulling the object out, Esmeralda quickly used her fingers to slide open her phone, with the brightness of the screen reflecting off her face as her eyes scanned over the black bold letters on the white screen behind it, with her emerald eyes widened, bulging out of their sockets as she kept her eyes glued to the green.

_From: Unknown_

_Roses are red, violets are blue. Guess which beautiful girl will end up in that body bag next….oh wait….that beautiful girl will be you._

Never taking her eyes off the bright screen, Esmeralda's fingers began to tremble and shake as she quickly tore her gaze away from the device and glanced all around her surroundings quickly, desperately searching for any sign of something or in that case _someone _suspicious, but was surprised when she caught sight of absolutely nothing, except for her friends that were currently surrounding her car right and the crowd behind her.

"Esme!"

As soon as she heard her name being called, Esmeralda slightly jumped out of the loudness of the sound of the voice, realizing that it came from Meg as the rest of them waited impatiently for their friend.

"Come on! Let's go!" Shang called.

Throwing her phone back into her pocket, Esmeralda quickly jogged over towards her friends and finally made her to car, not bothering to look back over her shoulder for anything suspicious.

"What happened back there?" Mulan asked.

"Oh um….I was just checking the time." Esmeralda replied casually, her voice sounding somewhat shaken and fearful.

"For that long?" John asked, sounding sceptical.

"You look a little spooked." Hercules said, furrowing his brow in concern.

"Do I?" Esmeralda asked, trying her hardest to hide her fear.

"You sure you're okay Babe?" Phoebus asked, sounding concerned as he gently took her hand.

"I'm fine, really, don't worry about me." Esmeralda said reassuringly to her friends, all of them exchanging confused glances with one another, but they decided that they would leave it alone, seeing as they were all incredibly spooked out right now and hungry right now as they all quickly discussed if it was such a good idea to eat out for the evening, while Esmeralda began to feel uneasy about receiving that mysterious text message.

Who could have sent such a disgusting message like that? Where did it come from? And most importantly, who in the right mind sent it and why did it have to be to her? But then suddenly, it dawned on her when she realized that the message could have most likely been from some sick twisted low-life playing some sort of sick prank on her. But why of all people her though?

Esmeralda continuously asked herself these questions and instantly snapped out of her thoughts as everyone else decided that maybe it would be best if they all just headed back to the apartment and hang out in John and Pocahontas' room and order in pizza or something. With all of them agreeing quickly, the girls decided to take Esmeralda's car back while the guys all gathered in Hercules' car as they all began to make their way back towards their apartment.

However, little the gang know that that same certain dark and mysterious shadowy figure had been hiding in the crowd all along keeping a close eye on them, and continued to do so as they watched the eight friends drive off in separate cars.

* * *

**Feeling somewhat creeped out yet? I hope so because the next chapter will be a lot more intense than the previous chapters! Anyways, I'm glad you are all enjoying this and I apologize for keeping you guys waiting for so long! Once again, I would like to give a shout out to all my awesome readers/reviewers but most importantly, I would like to give a shout out to my two very good close friends, supersmashkingdomhearts1999 and Suzerenma! Thank you so much guys, you guys really mean a lot to me and there will plenty of more to come soon! Don't forget to show some love and R&R! Muah! Love you guys! Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo!**


	5. Chapter 5: Gone!

**Chapter Five: Gone!**

In the blink of an eye, a week has passed and things around San Jose have been slightly disastrous ever since the week before when the police had found the dead bodies of those four missing young women. It was almost as if every single citizen had been so mournful towards the situation. It was as if everyone had known these women or had some sort of relationship or connection towards the four of them. As obvious as it sounds, it was much harder on each of their families and boyfriends, knowing deep down that they will never see their loved ones again. Now the bars around San Jose have been set, like a bear trap. Police have been sending out numerous warnings to young females that they should definitely by all means _not _walk home or anywhere alone, especially at night. The police made it clear that any female should be accompanied by at least three, four or more people at the least, and most importantly, they should be accompanied by a man of close relation.

Still to this day, not one single person knows of this sick maniac who committed this crime. It's obvious that these four women were all murdered, but the suspect continues to remain a mystery as police try their hardest to hunt down this demon before he or she strikes again. One thing that was so brutal that police mentioned was the fact how each of these women were murdered. Jane Driver -the first of the women who was kidnapped- was said to have been strangled to death, leaving her with a cracked neck along with a hard blow to her head and was also beaten, drugged and raped repeatedly. Tiana Rose- the second of the women- was said to have been slit deeply down the throat along with multiple stab wounds to her mid-section and like Jane, was also drugged, beaten and raped repeatedly. Belle O'Hara –the third and happened to be the second youngest of the four- police say that she was beaten, drugged, sautimized and was drowned. And the last of the four, Jasmine Larkin –who happened to be the youngest of the four-, was drugged, beaten, raped repeatedly and hanged. The whole situation was a brutal one, but police say they will do whatever it takes to find the maniac who did this.

* * *

On the upside to all of this, summer vacation had officially started and this meant that it was finally the week that the gang would be heading to Florida for their vacation. With three days to spare, the gang had quickly finished their errands and had now begun with the first step of the process, which was none other than getting their belongings together to begin packing. With the guys already finished their packing; Hercules, Shang, Phoebus and John decided to head over to their good friends –Eric and Flynn's apartment- to watch the hockey game, which would be the last game of the season, which neither of them could afford to miss. While the guys were out having a good time, the girls decided to stay behind and hang out in Pocahontas and John's room while they finished the rest of their packing, as none of them wanted to even think about taking the chance of waiting last minute to finish their packing.

"Can you guys believe it? In three days, we all leave for Florida!" Esmeralda exclaimed excitedly, as she stuck the last piece of her bathing suit inside her suitcase.

"I know, I'm so excited! I can't wait!" Pocahontas said happily as she zipped up her suitcase.

"I'm just glad to get out of this place and to hit the beaches!" Meg agreed, sticking the last of her skirt inside her luggage.

"I'm just happy that we get to sleep in and relax and not have to wake up early for school!" Mulan said as she sat on her suitcase, which she was struggling with at the moment to close it.

Once Meg, Esmeralda and Pocahontas finished zipping up their suitcases, Mulan on the other hand still remained struggling to zip up her luggage, as she bounced up and down ferociously to make it easier to zip up the suitcase, which resulted in Pocahontas chuckling at how ridiculous her friend was looking at the moment.

"Poca?" Mulan asked sheepishly. "Can you help me? Please?"

Pocahontas chuckled and proceeded in helping her friend out, while Mulan sat on the suitcase and Pocahontas did the zipping. Pretty soon, Pocahontas managed to get Mulan's luggage all zipped up and ready to go as they both sighed in delight in unison.

"Finally! We're done!" Esmeralda exclaimed as she collapsed on a nearby couch, feeling slight exhausted yet relieved that everything was all set and ready to go.

Upon witnessing this, Meg couldn't help but laugh at how her friend was looking right now but then a devilish grin spread across her face as she turned her back facing Esmeralda and immediately threw her hands up in the air and collapsed right onto Esmeralda's lap, which surprised her as she grunted at the feel of the sudden impact from Meg's weight on her lap.

"You couldn't find your own seat?" Esmeralda asked sarcastically as Meg snickered.

"I could, but I just did this to bug you."

Pocahontas laughed as she collapsed onto her bed from exhaustion, as Mulan immediately did the same and crawled up and lay down next to her friend on the bed. Pretty soon, the room was filled with nothing but silence as the four friends relaxed and chatted excitedly with one another about their upcoming trip.

"I'm so glad that summer vacation is here." Pocahontas said in delight.

"Me too." Meg agreed.

"Looks like all that hard work paid off." Mulan said, as the others agreed.

"Tell me about it." Esmeralda said. "I was about ready to chew my head off with the amount of mid-terms we had to study for."

"You're telling me." Meg said. "If I had to hear another lecture about politics again, I probably would have set the whole school on fire."

Esmeralda laughed. "That, I could actually see you doing in your spare time."

"Please, if I ever saw my prof from my humanities lecture anywhere outside of school, I would probably cry my eyes out." Mulan said, queuing laughs from the group.

"Leave it to Mulan to be the only one out of all of us that would actually do something like that." Pocahontas said jokingly.

"It's true!" Mulan defended. "I can't stand that witch! Ugh, every time I see her face, I just want to throw up!"

"You think your humanities prof is bad? Try having a lecture with my psychology prof, that man just gives me the creeps." Pocahontas said, as she shivered at the memory of seeing images of her professor's face in her head, with the four friends remaining silent for a few moments, until Esmeralda broke it.

"Guys, I can't over of what happened last week." She sighed.

"You mean about the fact that those girls are now dead?" Pocahontas asked sadly, as Esmeralda sighed and nodded.

"I just can't believe we had to witness that." Meg said. "I can't get the image of seeing their dead bodies out of my head."

"Me too." Mulan agreed. "Ever since then, I wasn't able fall asleep until 5:00am in the morning."

"It's traumatizing, I know." Esmeralda said. "But what scares me more was how the police described how they were murdered."

"I know." Pocahontas said. "That was insanely brutal, but it's very tragic."

"Whoever this sicko is probably has some serious issues of his own." Meg said.

"Issues? I'm pretty sure it's a lot more than just that." Mulan said.

"I'm just sad for their families, I mean think of how they're all reacting to this." Pocahontas said sadly, as the others agreed.

"I know, but what about their boyfriends?" Meg asked.

"Ariel and Rapunzel said they ran off down the street somewhere; probably because they couldn't handle seeing their dead bodies wrapped in body bags, but who could blame them?" Esmeralda said.

"I don't." Mulan agreed, a sudden frown beginning to form on her face, with Pocahontas immediately sensing that something was wrong with her friend.

"What's wrong Mulan?"

Mulan took a few minutes to collect all of her thoughts, hesitated, and finally let it out.

"You guys might think I'm crazy but…." She began slowly. "Have any of you…..received any anonymous text messages?"

Meg, Esmeralda and Pocahontas both exchanged confused and worried glances with another before returning their curious gazes back on Mulan.

"Anonymous texts? What are you talking about?" Pocahontas asked.

"I mean….have any of you gotten any weird text messages from an unknown person?"

Before any of them could react, immediately Meg stiffened in Esmeralda's lap, her heart was beginning to beat rapidly inside of her chest as her stomach did nervous flips on the inside. She hesitated at first, but finally let it out.

"I have." Meg confessed, as Mulan, Esmeralda and Pocahontas all kept their eyes trained on their friend.

"You have too?" Mulan asked. "I got one as well."

"You too? I got one a few weeks ago." Meg said.

"Now that you mention it, I actually got one too last week." Esmeralda confessed.

"I never got one." Pocahontas said. "But Mulan, where are you going with this?"

"I didn't want to tell anyone this, but I got one that night I went to the gym with Meg and them."

Upon hearing this, Meg's eye suddenly began to widen in shock and fear, as she eyed Mulan down.

"Are you serious?" Meg asked as Mulan nodded. "I got one that same night, that time when we were all discussing our trip for Florida."

"Seriously?" Mulan asked as Meg nodded.

"Meg what did the text say?" Esmeralda asked. "Do you still have it?"

"I do." Meg said as she dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone, punching in the code and unlocking it, with the light reflecting off her face as she went straight to her inbox to retrieve the message.

"Here, it said this: _Roses are red, violets are blue. A gorgeous girl like you should not be walking by herself….otherwise, I will come and get you._" Meg read aloud.

"But what could that mean?" Pocahontas asked worriedly.

"I don't know, I tried to convince myself that it was probably some sick prank, but this message really creeped me out."

"I got something just like that." Esmeralda said as she pulled out her phone and unlocked it, instantly retrieving the message from her inbox.

"Mine started off exactly the same as yours, except mine said this: _Roses are red, violets are blue. Guess which beautiful girl will end up in that body bag next….oh wait….that beautiful girl will be you._"

"Body bag?" Mulan asked, worriedly.

"I don't know if this is supposed to be a warning or some sick prank but this message had me worried for quite a while."

"This is what mine said." Mulan said with her phone in her hand. "It said this: _Those were some serious nuggets of wisdom that your friend gave to you, but she's right. I would seriously take her word for it, after all, I deeply hate for anything tragic to happen to her….and most importantly….to you for that matter._"

"Nuggets of wisdom?" Pocahontas asked. "What does that even mean?"

"I don't know." Mulan said. "But I'm guessing this message was referring to Meg when he said 'friend'."

"Not that I'm complaining or anything but, how come _you _guys got these unknown texts and I haven't?" Pocahontas frowned.

"I don't know." Esmeralda mumbled. "But what could these messages mean?"

"Beat to me." Mulan said.

"Guys seriously, I'm getting really freaked out now." Meg said, with a hint of fear to her tone.

"Trust me, the feeling is mutual." Mulan replied, but Meg shook her head.

"Not just about these texts, but this whole thing with the four girls going missing for two years, and then the next thing, we see their bodies being strapped to gurneys, and on top of that, the fact that we've received anonymous texts all when that was happening."

"Now that you mention it, Meg's right you guys." Esmeralda said in deep thought.

"Right about what?" Pocahontas asked curiously.

"About this whole thing." Esmeralda replied. "Don't you see, that day when Ariel and Rapunzel told us about those missing girls, Meg gets an unknown threat text message."

Mulan and Pocahontas both exchanged confused glances with one another, then slowly turned back to look at Esmeralda.

"We still don't see where both of you are trying to get at." Mulan said.

"Just try and follow this." Esmeralda instructed. "Mulan, that same night that and Meg head to the gym with Shang and Hercules, that's when you get an unknown text message."

"And then that night last week when the police found their dead bodies, Esme gets an anonymous threat text message." Meg finishes. "Do you guys see a pattern?"

"I see where you're coming from, but, do you think these text messages could be a warning for us?" Mulan asked worriedly.

"A warning for what?"

"That maybe…." Mulan hesitated. "That something bad might happen."

"Guys, you can't possibly think that these text messages are real, let alone true." Pocahontas said.

"But Poca think about. Why is that when we never heard of those four girls, we've never received these texts?" Mulan asked. "But when we did on the other hand, these random texts are being sent to us?"

"She does have a point Poca." Esmeralda said, as Meg agreed and nodded.

"It's probably just coincidence, or just some sick prank!" Pocahontas tried to lighten up the mood. "It can't be anything serious."

"Maybe Poca's right guys." Mulan said.

"Yea you're right." Meg agreed. "We're probably just over-reacting. It's probably just some sick prank."

"True." Esmeralda said. "But let's not try and dwell on the negative and just focus on the positive."

"I agree." Pocahontas said.

Pretty soon, the room fell quiet as the four friends were deeply lost in their own isolated thoughts. It wasn't long until Meg was suddenly growing bored as she hopped off of Esmeralda's lap, grabbed her packed suitcase and made her way to the door.

"Planning to have a conversation on the phone with Hercules again?" Esmeralda asked playfully, but knowingly since she knew her best friend so well, which only made Meg chuckle.

"No, I'm just going to sit in my room, sob and weep through a sappy romantic comedy on television while I stuff my face with chocolates and junk and hopefully gain thirty pounds before our vacation." Meg replied sarcastically with a smirk on her face.

Upon hearing this, immediately everyone burst into laughter. Only Meg would be the one to use her snide and sarcastic remarks.

"Alright, have fun doing that now." Esmeralda laughed.

Meg chortled. "Alright, I'll text you guys tonight."

Once Meg left, the three remaining friends sighed in unison as they enjoyed nothing but the peaceful quiet. Immediately, the peacefulness was shortly interrupted for a brief moment until a sudden _ding _erupted from inside the small room as the three friends nearly jumped at the sound of the loud bell chime. Soon, they were able to relax once they realized that the sound was coming from Pocahontas' IPhone, signalling that she had just received a text message.

Quickly, Pocahontas reached over and grabbed her cellular device off of the dressing table right next to her. Instantly, her fingers got to work as she punched in her passcode with such swift movement while the brightness of the screen reflected off of her face. Once she retrieved the text message, her body suddenly froze, her eyes beginning to widen slightly in terror as her eyes remained glued to the screen, skimming over the bold letters.

_From: Unknown_

_Coincidence pretty girl? How about I say that over your dead body, then we'll see if that was coincidence or not._

"Poca?"

Once Pocahontas heard her name, she quickly snapped out of her daze and realized that the voice came from Mulan, as she stared her friend over carefully.

"Are you okay?" Esmeralda asked.

"Uh…y-yea….I'm fine." Pocahontas replied quickly as she instantly shut her phone off and placed it back on the dress table.

"Are you sure?" Mulan asked.

"Yea guys, I'm totally fine!"

"Why are you talking so fast?" Esmeralda asked slowly, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"I'm not talking fast! What makes you say that?"

"Poca, we're no stupid." Mulan implied. "Every time you try to hide a problem, you brush it off by talking fast."

"And not to mention, your voice gets high when you lie too." Esmeralda said, only to have Pocahontas wave it off.

"Guys, I'm fine. Really." Pocahontas assured her friends, as she smiled brightly.

It was clear that neither Mulan nor Esmeralda was buying their friend's little lie, but at the same time, neither of them wanted to push it any farther than necessary. Right now, the best thing was to just focus on the positive.

However, little did the three young women know that a certain mysterious figure had been hiding in the bushes and was keeping a close eye on those women right through Pocahontas' apartment window.

* * *

***Meg***

It was now 8:30pm at night and the day was just coming to an end. Currently Meg was in the middle of swapping her day clothes for her gym clothes, since she and Mulan decided to head to the gym to get a quick workout in. However, her process of getting changed was interrupted by of course, Hercules, who seemed rather turned on just by the sight of watching his girlfriend strip down and change. Of course, Hercules would do that just to tease Meg, as she would playfully complain to him to cover his eyes while she changed.

However, right now the couple were engaged in a current make-out session, while Hercules pinned Meg down on the bed and continued kissing her passionately, which Meg knew she would definitely not win this battle. So in the end, she let Hercules have his way, not that she didn't enjoy it.

Pretty soon, Meg broke the kiss as she gently pushed against his chest, signalling for him to get off of her.

"Alright Wonder Boy, you had your fun." Meg said playfully as Hercules chuckled and slowly eased off of her.

"Aw, does it have to end so soon?" Hercules whined, causing Meg to snicker as she wiggled herself from under him and quickly jumped off the bed.

"Yes, baby, unfortunately it does." She replied in a mocking baby voice. "If we continue this any longer, Mulan would probably kill me for standing her up at the gym."

Hercules frowned playfully. "Oh okay, I see how it is."

Meg laughed as she slipped on her running shoes and grabbed her gym bag and quickly slipped on her purple sweater.

"Oh stop you're whining you big lug." Meg snickered as she leaned and quickly placed a kiss on his cheek. "Besides, you'll probably get more of this in Florida." She whispered seductively in his ear.

Upon hearing this, immediately Hercules' ears perked up as a wide grin formed on his face, as he knew exactly where Meg was getting at –well, probably not exactly what she really meant.

"Oh really?" He asked playfully, as Meg laughed and headed towards the door.

"Yes, I promise!" Meg called over her shoulder, blowing him a kiss and slipping out the door.

She quickly made her way down the hall, heading towards Mulan and Shang's room as she knocked lightly on the door, waiting patiently for to hear the little shuffling of Mulan's footfalls to make their way towards the door. After waiting there for two minutes, Meg began to grow impatient as she knocked on the door again, this time slightly harder than before.

Again, no answer.

Sighing heavily, Meg was just about ready to dig through her purse to retrieve her phone so she could send Mulan a quick to text to hurry up and get her butt out here, but was interrupted when the sounds of the door hinges squeaking caught her off guard as Mulan sheepishly stood in front of her, all set and ready to go in her gym clothes on, along with the rest of her equipment in her bag, but looked somewhat dishevelled.

"Took you long enough to answer the door." Meg said sarcastically, as she carefully eyed her friend up and down. "What happened to you?"

Mulan's cheeks turned cherry red. "Shang and I were just…..having a discussion while I waited for you."

"And by 'discussion', you mean….oh I don't know…._'making out'_?"

Mulan let out a sheepish chuckle. "If you want to use that term."

Meg laughed and rolled her eyes. "Of course, how could I have not known that?"

"Oh please, it's not like you and Hercules weren't doing the same thing just now too." Shang piped in as he appeared right behind Mulan.

"Oh shut up!" Meg said playfully as she blushed subtly.

Shang laughed. "You know it's true."

"Whatever, bicep boy! Now, can you please hand me over my gym partner so we can both leave in peace?"

Shang pretended to think as Meg rolled her eyes, but his thoughts were cut short when Mulan playfully elbowed him in the stomach, which caused him to laugh.

"Alright, alright!" He said.

Just as Mulan was about to step foot out of her room, it suddenly caught her off guard as Shang grabbed her from behind, spun her around and instantly crashed his lips onto hers as the two shared a passionate kiss with one another, completely forgetting that Meg was still there. Meg scoffed as she turned her head away, not wanting to witness her friends swapping spit with one another.

"Mulan! Let's go!" Meg called. "You can play tonsil hockey with your boyfriend when we come back in three hours!"

Quickly, Mulan broke the kiss as she pulled away from Shang and gave him quick peck on the cheek, making her way out the door while Shang continued to stand in the doorway.

"Yea, so Meg." Shang said, pretending to sound like a strict father. "Make sure you have her home by 9:30pm, sharp."

"Shang!" Mulan said playfully, as Meg laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh shut up!" Meg retorted as the two made their way down the hallway towards the stairs, quickly making their way downstairs and exiting through the back doors like the usually did and instantly stepped foot outside into the chilly, but warm night and headed towards Meg's car.

As Meg pulled out of the parking lot and drove off, it never occurred to the two young women that that same dark figure had been mysteriously keeping tabs on the two ever since they stepped foot out of their apartment, as he kept a close eye on them from inside his car, his foot stepping on the gas and instantly beginning to follow in their same direction.

* * *

In the blink of an eye, it was already 11:26pm, meaning that the gym facility was about to close in four minutes. Everyone else had already left and pretty soon, it was only Meg and Mulan who were the ones left. The manager decided to leave as well after a long day of work. Since she knew Meg and Mulan so well, she trusted them with the responsibility of locking up when it was time to close up.

Meg hopped off the treadmill after running for thirty minutes, huffing and puffing as she felt exhausted, but somewhat energized, while Mulan only had one minute left to go on the treadmill as well.

"Hey, you done?" Meg asked, sounding somewhat out of breath as she took a sip of her water.

Pretty soon, Mulan jumped off the treadmill as sheen of sweat plastered all around her face, grabbing her water bottle from the cup holder.

"Now I am." Mulan huffed, trying to get her breath back.

"We better get our stuff quickly so we can get out of here." Meg said, as Mulan nodded in agreement.

The two quickly made their way towards the women's change room to quickly retrieve their belongings while taking swigs of their water at the same time. Once Mulan was finished packing and had all of her stuff together, a thought suddenly came to mind.

"I feel like stopping by Starbucks to get a Frappuccino." She said in thought. "How about it?"

Meg chuckled. "So, basically after working our butts off to keep in shape, we're just going to fill ourselves with more fat and sugar that we tried so desperately hard to work off?"

Mulan smiled innocently. "Oh come on, one Frappuccino wouldn't hurt."

Sooner or later, Meg was finally able to give in, as the thought did seem to amuse her in a way.

"Oh fine, why not?" She smirked.

"Great!" Mulan said happily. "I just have to run to the bank to take out some money quickly though."

"You go ahead." Meg encouraged. "I'm just going to wash my face real quick and then I'll meet you there."

"Are you sure?" Mulan asked, feeling somewhat worried about the idea of leaving her friend behind, but Meg just shrugged it off.

"Yea, I'll be fine, don't worry about me."

Mulan hesitated, but finally gave in. "Alright, you have the key to lock up right?"

"Yup, sure do!" Meg said cheerily as she dangled the key.

"Alright, I'll be right back. Wait for me outside the bank when you're done!"

"Alright! See you in a few minutes!" Meg called as Mulan turned to leave and made her way out the change room.

With only two minutes left until closing time, Meg quickly got to work and made her way over to the sink with her towel hanging over her shoulder. Her hand grasped the cool silver knob as warm water instantly poured out of the tap and she quickly scooped the warm clear liquid in her hands and splashed the water on her face, letting the warmness of the water relax her muscles and seep through her sweaty and sticky flesh. Meg quickly scrubbed and rinsed her face repeatedly to make sure that all the sweat from her workout had poured out of her skin completely.

While Meg was just beginning to finish up rinsing her face with her eyelids still closed shut tightly to prevent the liquid of the face wash to get in her eyes, suddenly out of the blue, the bright lights in the change room began flickering, turning on and off, off and on so quickly that it felt like being in some sort of horror movie.

Lifting herself up and quickly snapping her eyes open as she quickly wiped her face, it was then when she noticed the lights had stop flickering and now it was dark, which was all the could her violet eyes could manage to make out. Blinking twice, Meg slowly scanned the change room, searching for any sign of anything suspicious, or at least a person.

"Hello?" Meg called out, sounding annoyed and angry at the same time.

But nothing could be heard, not a single sound was made. Meg tried her hardest to keep herself calm, her heart beginning to beat violently inside of her chest while she clenched the towel down to her side so tightly, that her knuckles turned white. There was no sound of footsteps being heard, or any sound of swift movement.

Frowning, Meg slowly poked her head around the corner, expecting to find at least someone there, or at least hear the sounds of murmuring laughter as she probably thought someone was pulling a sick and twisted prank. She slowly tiptoed her way around the corner towards where her bag was, but still, no one was there, as it was still dark. Pretty soon, the lights suddenly flickered back on as the brightness of the fluorescent lights shone above her, which instantly made Meg scoff in disgust as she shook her head and made her way over towards her bag to retrieve her belongings.

"Son of a bitch!" She cursed under her breath.

"Feisty little piece of meat, aren't you babe?" A low and creepy raspy voice said from behind her.

Freezing in her spot, Meg's blood suddenly ran cold and a cool chill ran up her spine and her violet eyes grew wide in horror. But before Meg had time to react or even get a word in, or in that matter whip around quickly to see who this person was, it was then when the next thing she knew, a strong and clammy hand immediately clamped over her mouth and grabbed her aggressively from behind, snaking his big arm around her waist, with a muffle scream erupting from inside of her.

Meg tried her hardest to fight back, trying to so desperately to rip his hand from her mouth, or at least lower his hand a little below her mouth so she could bite down on his skin, but it was useless, this mysterious person was just too strong for her, but that didn't stop her from trying.

"Shut up!" The man hissed, as he lifted Meg in the air while she kicked her legs and feet in midair as she tried to free herself, while she grunted and groaned in panic. Suddenly, she felt as the man banged her head hard against the locker door, which immediately made her unconscious, her body falling limp as the man shoved her to the ground and quickly threw a bag over her head, shoving her whole body inside the bag as he tied her ankles tightly at the end.

Pretty soon, the man lifted Meg's unconscious body and threw the bag over his shoulder, quickly making his way out the change room as he spotted the exit towards the back and jogged his towards the door and out into the darkness.

* * *

***Mulan***

Once Mulan was finished retrieving her cash from the bank, she quickly made her way out of the exit, expecting to find Meg waiting right outside for her. However, it shocked her to find that Meg happened to be nowhere in sight, which did confuse her somewhat, seeing as though Meg never took longer than five minutes to wash her face. Mulan's instinct was to head back inside the gym facility and see if she was still there, but instead, she decided to wait just a few more minutes, in case Meg was taking a bit longer than expected.

Soon, five more minutes had passed and Meg was still nowhere in sight, which made Mulan begin to worry, furrowing her brow in confusion as she waited for her friend patiently. But still, there was no sign of her. She thought about sending her a text, but the smart thing to do would be to head back to the gym and see if she was still there, which is what Mulan decided to do as she quickly made her way down the street towards the gym.

Once she made it towards the gym, again, she was shocked to find that the gym had not been locked up like it should have been. Without even thinking, Mulan threw open the door and scanned the facility, which was completely empty and no sound was made. Furrowing her brow, Mulan quickly made her way towards the change room, searching for any sign of Meg, but once again, was shocked to find that Meg was no longer near the sink like she was before, and on top of that, her bag had not been touched.

"Meg? Are you in here?" Mulan called quietly, her voice echoing and bouncing off the walls as she gently set her bag down.

She expected to hear at least the familiar sound of Meg's velvety voice respond back to her, but not a sound was made, which made fear and anxiety arise from inside of her.

"Meg, seriously, come on out!" She called again as she made her way towards where the bathroom stalls were.

"Meg's not here, cutie." That same low raspy voice said from inside the change room.

Immediately, Mulan jumped at the sound of hearing a strange man's voice, as she quickly whipped her body around to find a shadowy figure behind her, but was surprised and somewhat relieved that no one was there, the hairs on her arms beginning to rise up as goose bumps slithered their way down her arms, her heart beginning to race violently inside of her chest.

"Who's there?" Mulan demanded, her voice slightly shaken, but no sound was made in return.

Waiting for an answer, it was then when the sound of the toilet flushing erupted from one of the bathroom stalls, with Mulan whipped her whole body around as she followed the sound closely all the way down towards the end of the stalls, with the door closed, hoping to God that it was Meg playing some sort of practical joke on her.

"Meg?"

Just as Mulan slowly reached her hand to push open the door, it was then when suddenly, the door was thrown open with such force that the next thing Mulan knew, was when the man lunged at her and clamped his big clammy hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming, but that ship had sailed.

"You keep screaming, and I will kill you!" The man threatened, but that didn't stop Mulan from screaming or fighting.

At first, Mulan swung her fist in his face as the man grunted and released his grip on her and quickly, Mulan dashed around the corner to retrieve hers and Meg's bag and dash outside. However, that was cut short when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap tightly around her waist as they lifted her up in the air, with her legs and feet kicking violently in mid-air, clamping his big hand over mouth once again as Mulan screamed at the top of her lungs.

She tried elbowing him in the stomach and even whipping her head back, hoping to smash his mouth with her hard skull, but it was then when the man slammed her head right into the glass mirror, as the sound of glass shattered onto the ground and Mulan was left unconscious, the pieces of glass slightly cutting the side of her head as blood trickled down her face. Soon, the man shoved her to the ground like he did with Meg earlier and shoved Mulan's body inside a bag, throwing her limp form over his shoulder and quickly made his way out of the change room, towards the exit at the back door and vanished into the night.

* * *

***Esmeralda***

"Wow Poca, you were right. These natural fruit smoothies taste delicious!" Esmeralda said in a satisfied tone as she took another sip of her strawberry smoothie.

Both Esmeralda and Pocahontas decided to attend their session of yoga and Pilates Classes for the night, since Meg and Mulan decided to head to the gym, while Phoebus and John made a quick stop to their favourite sports store to grab a couple of jerseys. Since their classes had ended, Pocahontas was determined to get Esmeralda to try a natural fruit smoothie, which Esmeralda was not too fond of in the first place, but of course, Pocahontas had to go through the trouble of dragging her and spoon feeding her the smoothie. At first, Esmeralda stuck up her nose and turned her head away, but after being forced to try it, instantly Esmeralda enjoyed it and right now, she could not stop gulping down her smoothie. Right now, the two were currently making their way towards Esmeralda's car in the parking lot.

"What did I tell you?" Pocahontas laughed as she took a sip of her banana smoothie. "Don't you think these are way better than those Frappuccinos from Starbucks?"

"So much better! And plus, these smoothies are way healthier for you too."

"I totally agree! I'm pretty sure Meg and Mulan on the other hand probably stopped for a Frappuccino run."

Esmeralda chuckled and rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be surprised if they were."

"Hey speaking of the two, did Meg text you to let you know when she and Mulan would be finished at the gym?"

"No, actually, she didn't." Esmeralda said as she furrowed her brow. "She usually does though."

"Yea, Mulan hasn't texted me either." Pocahontas said, sounding somewhat worried.

"But that's not like them though; they would tell us when they were on their way home at least."

"You're right and so far, I haven't heard a word from them."

"Maybe they're probably just tired; they could be back at the apartment you know."

"They could be." Pocahontas said in deep thought. "But it still isn't like them to not text us on their way back though."

"That's very true." Esmeralda said. "Maybe we could get a hold of Hercules and Shang, you know, just to see if they're okay."

"We could do that too, but we can also try to get a hold of them."

"How about I call Meg right now on her phone." Esmeralda offered. "She's bound to answer it."

"Alright." Pocahontas agreed as Esmeralda pulled out her phone from her pocket, her fingers unlocking her passcode as she got to work on dialling Meg's number.

Esmeralda put the phone to her ear and waited patiently as the line rang, hoping that the line would only ring once or twice and Meg would immediately pick up her phone. A few minutes later, Esmeralda furrowed her brow in worry as she slowly brought the phone down from her ear, staring down at her phone in confusion.

"She didn't answer?" Pocahontas asked.

Esmeralda shook her head. "No, it just sent me straight to her voicemail."

"That doesn't sound like something Meg would do."

"I know, she usually answers on the first ring." Esmeralda said worriedly. "But where could she be?"

"I don't know." Pocahontas said. "Let me try calling Mulan."

Esmeralda nodded in agreement as they finally reached Esmeralda's car, unlocking the door as they both slipped inside the car and slammed their doors shut, with Pocahontas tapping her fingers on her phone to retrieve Mulan's number. Once satisfied with finding her number, she put the phone to her ear and let the line ring. The line rang, and rang, and rang, but no answer. Immediately, all that was heard was Mulan's voicemail, as Pocahontas sighed deeply and quickly brought the phone down from her ear.

"She didn't answer either?" Esmeralda asked, as Pocahontas shook her head.

"No she didn't answer." She said worriedly. "Esme, this is not like Mulan to not answer her calls, especially when Shang or I call her."

"This is bizarre on so many levels." Esmeralda mumbled.

"We have to get back to the apartment, maybe they're with Shang and Hercules right now, or maybe their phones died so they couldn't answer our calls or text us."

"I hope you're right, Poca." Esmeralda said. "But you're right, let's head back quickly."

Pocahontas nodded eagerly as Esmeralda pulled out the parking lot and sped down the street. But unfortunately, it never occurred to the two women that a certain vehicle was currently speeding its way down the street, heading in the exact same direction as the two were currently heading right this very minute.

* * *

Once the two made it back to their apartment, they quickly dashed up the stairs and made their way down the hall of the floor that they all lived on. Esmeralda decided to head straight for the room that Meg and Hercules shared, while Pocahontas headed straight towards Mulan and Shang's room. The both of them knocked on each door viciously, their fists pounding against the door when no sound of footsteps was made inside either of the rooms.

Esmeralda sighed deeply as Pocahontas walked towards her, with a troublesome look on her face.

"No luck?" Esmeralda asked. Pocahontas shook her head.

"Nothing." She said. "How about with you?"

"Same thing."

"Look, why don't we just go back to my room and we can figure this all out." Pocahontas offered as Esmeralda nodded and agreed.

Once the two were both inside Pocahontas' room, Esmeralda immediately collapsed on the couch that was right next to the bed, while Pocahontas sat at the edge of her bed, facing towards Esmeralda.

"So does this mean we get a hold of Shang and Hercules now?" She asked. Esmeralda nodded and quickly dug out her phone.

As if on cue, Esmeralda's phone suddenly began shaking heavily in her hands, the impact of her phone vibrating as she was receiving an incoming call from none other than Hercules, his name in bright white letters popping on her screen. Relief watched over Esmeralda as she sighed happily and immediately slid her phone opened and answered the call.

"Hey Hercules." Esmeralda said happily.

"Esme." Hercules said, sounding somewhat panicked. "Please tell me that Meg is with you right now."

"What? No…..I was hoping she would be with you…." Esmeralda replied back, her face falling into a frown as her heat began beating violently inside of her chest.

"She isn't?" Hercules asked. "God damn it!"

"Why, Herc what's wrong?"

"She never called me to let me know when she was coming back home with Mulan." Hercules practically wailed, but remained calm. "I must have called her phone at least ten times already and she never answered any of my calls!"

Upon hearing this, fear washed over Esmeralda as a huge knot formed inside of her stomach, her voice was wedged deep inside her throat, feeling as though she was unable to find the right words.

"I called her as well not too long ago and she never answered my call." Esmeralda explained calmly. "I was hoping she would be with you."

"She's not." Hercules said. "Honestly Esme, I'm really starting to get worried, this isn't like Meg to not answer any of my calls, let alone your calls as well."

"The feeling is mutual, Herc. Umm….where are you right now?"

"I'm out looking for her with Shang right now."

"Alright, well….I'll call Phoebus and tell him."

Hercules sighed heavily on the other line. "Alright, well, please let me know if you hear anything from her."

"I will, don't worry. And the same goes for you too."

"Alright, I'll talk to you soon."

Esmeralda quickly hung up the phone, shutting it off as her heart began beating violently inside of her chest, her face had gone ghost pale.

"What happened? What did he say?" Pocahontas asked hopefully.

"Meg's not with him, and he hasn't heard from her since she left for the gym with Mulan."

"Are you serious?" Pocahontas asked frantically as Esmeralda nodded. "Let me call Shang."

Once again on cue, it wasn't long until that same loud _ding _had erupted from inside the small room, which came from none other than Pocahontas's phone, signalling that a text message was waiting to be answered. Quickly grabbing her phone from inside her bag, relief washed over her as she realized the text message had come from Shang, his name popped up in black bold letters. Without wasting any time, Pocahontas quickly slid open her phone and scanned her eyes over the message.

_From: Shang_

_Poca, is Mulan with you right now?_

"It's Shang." Pocahontas said, keeping her eyes on her phone.

_Reply to Shang:_

_No she isn't Shang…..I was hoping she was with you…._

_From: Shang_

_Are you kidding me? She isn't?_

_Reply to Shang:_

_No she isn't! Shang, is everything okay? What's going on?_

_From: Shang_

_Poca, you don't understand, I'm losing my mind right now because I haven't heard a word from her ever since she left for the gym! I called her and left her a bunch of messages and she still has not called me back!_

"What's going on?" Esmeralda asked, while Pocahontas on the other hand had giant knots in her stomach as her fingers began trembling and her heart beat was slowly beginning to increase.

_Reply to Shang:_

_I tried calling her too and she didn't answer my call. I was just about to call you to find out if she was with you._

_From: Shang_

_She's not and I'm freaking out right now Poca, and so is Herc. This isn't like Mulan at all to do this me, let alone you for that matter._

_Reply to Shang:_

_I am too, the feeling is mutual. Where are you and Herc right now?_

_From Shang:_

_Driving around looking for them. We were thinking of meeting up with John and Phoebus to tell them about this._

_Reply to Shang:_

_Alright well, I'll give John a shout to let him know._

_From Shang:_

_Alright, but please if you hear anything from her, call me o text me._

_Reply to Shang:_

_Trust me, I will, and the same goes for you too._

_From Shang:_

_Alright, talk to you soon._

Pocahontas quickly shut off her phone as she jumped off the bed and began pacing back and forth around the room.

"What did he say?" Esmeralda asked worriedly.

"The same thing, Mulan never called him back when he tried to get a hold of her." Pocahontas responded, with fear and panic in her tone.

"Oh my god. Poca, I'm getting really worried right now."

"Worried? I'm way past worried; I'm beginning to freak out right now!"

"Okay, okay let's just calm down and think this through." Esmeralda said soothingly as she slowly rose from the chair. "So what time again did Meg and Mulan say they were heading to the gym?"

"Mulan told me that she and Meg were going for the gym at around 8:30pm."

"Right, okay so the gym closes at 11:30pm right?"

"Right, but since Hercules and Shang both know the manager so well, sometimes the manager will let them stay a little longer and she lets them lock up whenever she has to leave early."

"Do you think they could still be at the gym?"

"I doubt it they would be crazy to stay at the gym later than 11:45pm."

"Yea and right now it's 11:58pm."

"And we still haven't heard from them, which is not like them."

"Hercules and Shang have heard from neither of them, which is just not right."

"I know we shouldn't jump to conclusions, but something's up." Pocahontas finally said. "I know for a fact that something is definitely not right."

"I know and I can't help but agree with you." Esmeralda said in deep thought. "Do you think Meg and Mulan could have just driven off somewhere together?"

"Driven off? Why would you think that?"

"I don't know." Esmeralda said hopelessly.

"Even if they did, it's still not like them to not call or text us, or even Hercules or Shang for that matter." Pocahontas said.

"You right." Esmeralda replied in deep thought. "Let me just go next door to my room for a sec, I think I might have Meg's mom's number, or even her sister."

"Alright, I'll look around for Mulan's brother's number, or even her mom or her dad." Pocahontas said.

In an instant, Esmeralda carefully slipped out of Pocahontas' room and quickly made her way towards her room that she shared with Phoebus. Satisfied that she found her key, she slipped the key in the lock and unlocked her door, letting herself inside as she shut the door. Flicking on the lights, Esmeralda quickly got to work with searching for that familiar sheet of paper that had Meg's family's numbers scribbled all over it, in case it was an emergency and she needed to get a hold of them if she failed to get a hold of her friend.

After five minutes of endless searching through the drawers and desks with that sheet of paper nowhere to be found, Esmeralda sighed heavily as she made her way towards the bathroom. At first, she couldn't possibly think that the paper had somehow ended up in this place, but it didn't hurt to take a quick search. As Esmeralda was searching the bathroom, it was then when all of a sudden, all of the lights suddenly shut off, with Esmeralda remaining in nothing but complete darkness.

She gasped as she quickly spun around towards the door, but all her emerald eyes could make out was pitch black. Sucking in a deep breath as her heart began pounding in her chest; Esmeralda desperately reached out her hand in search for the surface of the walls or at least the sink. Once she finally felt the familiar surface of the wall beside her, Esmeralda used that to gently guide herself to find her way out of the washroom to flick the lights on. Her first instinct was that it was probably either Pocahontas or Phoebus trying to pull some mean prank on her.

"Poca? Are you there?" Esmeralda called out quietly, the hairs on her arms began to stand up, and hoping to receive at least an answer, but no sound was made.

"Phoebus? Is that you?" She called out again, but still, nothing.

Sighing angrily, Esmeralda cursed herself underneath her breath for not thinking to bring the flashlight that was out in her room. But then again, she did not expect this happen.

"Alright you guys, come on out, you got me, I give up!" She called out again; her tone was firm but somewhat fearful.

Once she was able to make it towards the doorway of the bathroom, relief washed over her when she was able to flick on the light switch and instantly, her room lit up brightly like it did before. However, what caught her off guard was when she noticed that the window to her room was left halfway open, as the cool air seeped its way inside the little room. Letting out a heavy sigh, Esmeralda did nothing but roll her eyes and shake her head as she walked over the window and quickly closed it shut.

"You guys are so stupid." She muttered in annoyance under her breath.

"What guys are stupid, baby?" A low raspy voice said from behind her.

Opening her eyes wide in terror as a shiver rose up her spine, her heat sinking right down to her chest as her whole body began to shake and tremble violently. Before she had time to react, a large clammy hand immediately reached her head and clamped her mouth shut, feeling as the wind had just been knocked out of her and she barely had any air to breath. Once she was able to recover, she let out a muffled scream, while the man's other arm grabbed hold of both her arms and held onto her tightly and dragged her back inside the bathroom. While Esmeralda continued to struggle in this rough and tight grasp, it was then Esmeralda felt as she was shoved violently to the hardwood floor as a sac bag suddenly made its over her head while the intruder worked on getting her whole body inside the bag.

Pretty soon, he tied up her ankles at the bottom and right out the blue; he threw a hard blow to her head and instantly knocked the woman unconscious, her whole body falling limp to the ground. The intruder quickly threw the bag over his shoulder and immediately dashed out the window that Esmeralda had closed a few seconds ago.

* * *

***Pocahontas***

Back in the room, Pocahontas waited patiently for her friend to arrive back. Like Esmeralda, she also had no luck finding any of Mulan's family's numbers for when she needed to get a hold of them in case it was an emergency. But right now, this was an emergency and she needed to find those numbers fast. But on the other hand, she decided to wait until Esmeralda came back, but after seven minutes of waiting, she was shocked to find that her friend had not come back.

Being curious, Pocahontas decided to slip outside of her room and head towards Esmeralda' room, just to check up on her friend to see if she was okay, or in that case needed an extra hand to help her. Pocahontas lightly knocked on the door, waiting to at least hear the movement of footsteps from behind the door, but no sound was made. Confused, Pocahontas knocked the door again, this time firmer than before. It was then when all of a sudden, the impact of her firm knocking slowly had opened the door.

The door slowly flew open to reveal Esmeralda's room, but one thing was missing. Esmeralda seemed to be nowhere in sight.

"Esme? Are you in here?" Pocahontas called out quietly to her friend, pleading for an answer, but was beginning to feel somewhat frantic when she received nothing in return.

This wasn't right. The door was left open, the lights are all on, including the bathroom lights and most importantly, the window was left wide open. Once her eyes landed on the open window, her first instinct was think that Esmeralda was probably pulling some sort of prank on her. However, something didn't seem right.

"Esme? Did you jump out the window?" Pocahontas called out again, sounding confused and adequately fearful.

Pocahontas sighed deeply and slowly made her way inside the empty room, her eyes scanning the room in search of her friend, but she was nowhere to be found. The light from the bathroom seemed to be begging for her to come and take a look inside. As much as she didn't want to, Pocahontas sucked it up and walked over to the bathroom, stepping foot inside, hoping for Esmeralda to automatically pop out from behind the shower curtains to scare her.

Once her eyes came in sight with the closed shower curtains, Pocahontas slowly tiptoed towards the shower, inching closer and closer and closer, until….

She immediately ripped open the shower curtains, expecting for Esmeralda to pop out and frighten her, but again she was shocked and frantic when the coast was completely clear, and no sign of her friend whatsoever.

"Esme, stop, you can come out now! I give up!" She called again.

"Esme's gone, darling." That same low creepy and raspy voice said from behind her.

Without even thinking, Pocahontas immediately let out a scream, however that was cut short when a big hand clamped over her mouth to prevent her screaming from being heard. While Pocahontas struggled and tried her hardest to force this man's hands from around her mouth, she was suddenly shoved roughly to the hardwood floor, with the man falling and landing right on top of her, feeling as though she had definitely just cracked a few bones.

The intruder kept his hand around her mouth, with Pocahontas kicking her legs and feet in the air and wriggled underneath him, while he quickly threw the bag over her head and struggled to get her body inside the bag. Once he finally got her body in the bag, despite her fighting and screaming as he tied her ankles at the bottom, he grabbed hold of her and bashed it into the tiles of the bathroom wall, as this immediately sent Pocahontas straight into unconsciousness.

The intruder threw her limp body over his shoulder and pushed himself and the bag through the window as he vanished into the night. Pretty soon, his van was now filled with four unconscious women in sac bags, letting out a wicked laugh as he hopped in his van and drove off into the night, vanishing completely, just like he did two years ago.

* * *

**Dun, dun….DUN! Sorry for such a long delay guys, the past few weeks, or I should say month have been so hectic and stressful lately. I've fallen behind on my stories, but right now, I'm beginning to get back into them. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and there will be plenty of more to come. I want to send a big shout out to my lovely readers and reviewers, Wolf's Willow, queenbeautyhair, McKenna45, CoConut LUVer and a big shout out to my two very close friends, supersmashkingdomhearts1999 and Suzerenma! All of you guys are awesome! Don't forget to show your love and support by R&R! Muah! Love you guys!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

It was approximately 2:45am at night, which meant that it was forty-five minutes past midnight with only fifteen minutes left to spare until the time would eventually hit 3:00am. The city of San Jose went from loud and wild to calm and quiet as the hours passed by. The bright white headlights of Hercules' Honda Civic car was the only thing that could be seen; which stood out the most throughout the now the dark night, circling around the city aimlessly in his car.

After making frantic phone calls to their closest friends and relatives and receiving nothing back in response, right now Hercules along with Shang were currently wandering around the city in desperate search of Meg and Mulan. Having made more than ten stops, going door to door asking for any sign of the two familiar women and receiving the same answers over and over, the two young men began to grow even more worried than they were before, fear and anxiety arising in their systems. But no matter what, none of them were going to give up trying to find the two people that meant most to them.

Seeing as his car was beginning to run low on gas, Hercules decided to pull up in a nearby parking lot, which was dark and completely empty with only the brightness of various street lights that were still intact. As he quickly swerved his car and pulled up in any random park spot, Hercules switched his engine off and stared wide-eyed at the darkness through the glass window in front of him, with Shang remaining quiet as he stared at his friend with concern and fear. The two sat in silence, but Hercules was the first to break it as he tore his eyes away from the window and turned to set his gaze on his friend.

"What do we do now?" Hercules asked, his voice sounding panicky. "We must have knocked on at least twenty doors to ask for help."

"I don't know man!" Shang replied, fear in his tone. "I mean I'm way passed worried right now."

"Worried? I'm about to lose my mind right about now!" Hercules wailed, slamming his fist against the steering wheel.

"You don't think I am too?" Shang wailed back, staring wide eyed at his friend. "Trust me man, the feeling is mutual!"

The two young men sat in brief silence as they both sucked in a deep gulp of air and exhaled slowly, trying to calm themselves down. This time, Shang was the first to break the silence.

"Alright, the important thing is to try to remain calm and just figure this whole thing out."

Hercules nodded his head in agreement, gripping his hands on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. "You're right. Alright let's just try and take things back a little."

Shang nodded. "Okay, so Mulan and Meg both left for the gym together at 8:30pm, correct?"

"Yeah that's right!" Hercules replied in deep thought. "And the gym closes at 11:30pm….but yet neither of them is with Esmeralda and Pocahontas for that matter."

"Right, but knowing Mulan and Meg, they probably decided to stay an extra fifteen minutes."

"Which only means that the manager; Kida, let them stay longer and trusted the two of them to lock up when they were done." Hercules finished.

"Yeah that's true, because remember Kida would usually let the four of us stay only fifteen minutes past regular closing time sometimes, and she would trust either one of us to close up when were done." Shang replied in deep thought.

"Right." Hercules said. "But…I doubt they would've stayed longer than fifteen minutes….do you think they could have stayed longer?"

Shang shook his head. "No….they couldn't…..they wouldn't do something like that to Kida."

A deep sigh escaped from Hercules's mouth as he pressed his lips together in a thin line, falling into a deep thought while at the same time, trying to prevent himself from blowing up and going crazy any time soon.

"I just say we call the cops and report two missing people." He shot.

"Wait a minute….." Shang muttered in deep thought, as Hercules whipped his head to look at his friend.

"What?"

"I just realized something…" Shang began. "We never checked Starbucks you know."

Hercules furrowed his brow in confusion. "What does Starbucks have to do with this? And why would we check there?"

"Mulan loves her Frappuccino's….and I know her well enough that she probably suggested that they both head to Starbucks after their workout."

"Now that you mention it, Meg does love her Frappuccino's too…." Hercules replied in deep thought.

"Exactly so that could only mean one thing." Shang said. "They could probably be at Starbucks right this very minute."

Immediately, Hercules frowned as he lifted his hand and checked his watch, his eyes scanning over the tiny green screen with the black squared numbers that covered the screen, the numbers reading 2:52am.

"But it's almost five minutes until 3:00am….why would they stay at Starbucks for that long?"

Shang shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, but you never know, it's worth a shot. Besides, Starbucks is the only hope we have left of finding them."

Without any more thought, Hercules immediately switched on his car and the engine roared to life, his bright headlights lighting the parking lot as he reversed his car and quickly sped off into the night, hoping to God that Shang was right.

* * *

After stopping for a couple of beers on their way back, the time was now 3:30am and Phoebus and John were just leaving the bar as they made their way towards Phoebus's car, chatting and laughing with one another. Thankfully, the two of them were able to hold their liquor down well and the good thing was none of them were drunk or felt the least bit tipsy; especially Phoebus for that matter, seeing as he was the designated driver. Strangely, neither of them had received any texts or calls from their girlfriends for the rest of the night, which was beginning to worry the both of them slightly but it dawned on them that maybe both Esmeralda and Pocahontas could be asleep in their beds, which sounded believable somewhat.

Once they were both inside and buckled safely inside Phoebus's car, their laughter began to die down as John grabbed his phone out of his pocket, scanning the screen of his phone hoping to find at least one text or a missed call from Pocahontas, but he was disappointed to see that his screen was exactly the same how he had left it; blank and empty, with only the bright glowing numbers on his phone reflecting off of his face. Furrowing his brow, John broke the silence and opened his mouth to speak.

"That's weird." He muttered.

"What's up dude?" Phoebus asked his friend as he stuck his key in the ignition, not exactly starting up the engine just yet.

"My inbox is empty and so are my incoming calls." John frowned, staring at the screen on his phone. "No missed calls or texts from Pocahontas."

Upon hearing this, Phoebus couldn't help but frown in confusion, keeping his gaze on his friend but then slowly turned his head to stare through the glass window in front of him.

"Really?" He asked. "Maybe she could be sleeping."

"She could be but…..even when she were sleeping, she would usually text or call to tell me whether she's going to wait up for me or not." John answered as he began to feel slightly worried.

"Huh…" Phoebus replied. "That's weird, but now that you mention it, Esmeralda usually does the same too."

"Have you heard from anything from her?"

"I'm not sure." Phoebus shrugged. "Let me check my phone."

Phoebus quickly reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone, clicking the little machine open, hoping to find that he received a missed call or at least a text message sent from Esmeralda but unfortunately just like John, he was shocked to find that his screen was blank, with only the glowing numbers popping up before him and not a single text or call was made from his girlfriend. Frowning, Phoebus stared down at his phone in silence, until John broke it.

"Anything?" John's voice broke his train of thought.

"No…" He replied back in a low voice, beginning to feel somewhat worried about this situation.

"Are you serious?" John asked sounding shocked while Phoebus kept his eyes trained on the blank screen in front of him.

"I'm serious."

The two sat in awkward silence as they both kept their eyes trained on their own individual cellular devices, not even the slightest sound was made, worry and fear beginning to arise inside of their systems. But the important thing right now was not to jump to any conclusions too quickly. Moments passed and John was the first to break the silence once again.

"This is bizarre on so many levels." He muttered, shaking his head on the thought as a sigh escaped from his mouth.

"You're right." Phoebus agreed. "This is definitely not like Esmeralda or Pocahontas to not call or check up on us for the rest of the night."

"Let alone ignore our texts." John piped in. "While you were in the bathroom, I sent Pocahontas a text just to let her know where we were and when we'd be home, but I asked to see if everything was okay too and she never responded back."

Phoebus's eye left his screen as he lifted his head to turn and look at his friend. "What time did you text her at?"

John shrugged. "I think it was at 12:20am."

"That's the same time I called Esmeralda and left her a message." Phoebus said, his voice beginning to rise in fear. "I called her a couple of times and it sent me straight to her voicemail so I left her a message letting her know that I was okay. I told her to call or text me if anything."

"And she never called you back?" John finished, his palms beginning to sweat as his heart began thumping inside of his chest.

"No she didn't…..I know we shouldn't jump to any conclusions but I'm starting to get worried now." Phoebus said.

"The feeling is mutual dude, trust me." John agreed. "I wonder where Hercules and Shang are, we should tell them about this."

"I hear you on that one." Phoebus agreed quickly as he twisted his key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. "Let's see if we can try and find them."

John nodded in agreement as Phoebus pulled out of the parking space and sped his way out into the street, his Toyota disappearing into the quiet night.

* * *

"Sir, are you positively sure that you haven't seen this girl tonight in your café restaurant?" Hercules asked one of the workers behind the counter at Starbucks hopefully, desperately holding up a recent picture on the crystal clean screen of his phone of him carrying Meg in his arms in bridal style, with a beautiful background of the beach while they had big smiles plastered on their faces, the two of them enjoying what looked like a passed vacation to Mexico a few months back. The chubby Italian man behind the counter sadly shook his head no as Hercules' face fell and he sighed in frustration and worry.

"What about this girl?" Shang piped in hopefully as he also held up a recent picture on the clear screen of his phone of him giving Mulan a piggy back ride, the background consisted of a beautiful, luscious green jungle behind them while the two had bright smiles spreading across their faces, just like Hercules and Meg, the two of them looked like they were enjoying a passed trip to Cuba back in December over the Christmas holidays. Again, the man sadly shook his head no as Shang sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry." The man said with his heavy Italian accent. "I have not seen any of these girls tonight."

"Not at all?" Hercules asked, while the man shook his head.

"No, not at all." The man replied.

"Is it possible that they could have come before your shift had started?" Shang asked with a hint hope to his tone.

"No, I worked all day from 10:30am and neither of those two girls stepped foot into this place." The confessed with worry to his tone.

"So….you're saying that neither of them came here?" Hercules finished, trying to piece everything together, as the man nodded.

"That is right." He said.

"And none of the customers in here saw them either?" Shang asked.

"That is correct young man."

The two young men sighed heavily in unison, their hearts were pretty much about to thump right out through their chests as anxiety and fear rose in their systems, their palms beginning to sweat. Stopping at Starbucks for their last hope of finding their girlfriends only discouraged the two even more, while Hercules was tempted to punch a deep whole inside the walls around them, while Shang on the other hand was tempted to throw table through the glass window. It was clear that none of the employees have seen sight of the two young women, not even the customers have seen either of them. Hercules clenched his fist in his hand, biting down on his lower lip but was finally able to open his mouth to speak.

"Thanks for the help anyways." He said solemnly, as Shang sadly nodded his head in agreement, balling his hand into a fist and his knuckles turning white.

"If it helps, the least I could do is to notify the police immediately?" The man offered kindly, wanting to help in this situation.

Before Hercules could interject and refuse his offer, Shang beat him to it as he opened his mouth to speak.

"That will be fine, thanks." He said as the two nodded their heads in the man's direction and made their way out the now deserted café restaurant and out into the cool night. Two kept quiet for a few moments as they stood in front of café with their hands buried deep inside their pockets. Soon, Hercules was the first to break the silence.

"I don't think we should let him contact the police so soon."

"Dude, we looked and asked around everywhere and so far, we've had no luck finding them." Shang said. "At this point, notifying the police is the only hope we have left."

Hercules sighed heavily. "I guess you have a point there."

"Come on man, that doesn't mean that we have to stop searching for them tonight."

"I know dude, I'm just…." Hercules began, only to throw his hands up in the air as he let out a loud, frustrated yell in agony and immediately swung his fist at a nearby tree, his tender flesh coming on contact with the rough bark of the tree so violently that the impact managed to rip open the skin, his knuckles beginning to bleed but he only ignored the pain he was feeling.

"Herc! Dude, come on man hurting yourself is not going to solve the answer right now!" Shang yelled at his friend as he pulled him back from the tree and held onto his arms firmly. Once Hercules was finally able to calm down and collect himself, he let out a deep and frustrated sigh.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled. "I'm just…..freaked out about this whole thing."

"I know you are, and believe me I am too, but we have to try and figure this out." Shang soothed his friend. "We should call Phoebus and John and let them know about this."

Hercules nodded in agreement. However as if on cue, the two immediately came in contact with bright, beaming headlights that literally blinded their eyes as the car made its way towards down and pulled up right towards them. Relief washed over the two as they realized that it was none other than Phoebus and John and they pulled up in his Toyota and switched the engine off. The two blondes made their way out of the car and jogged their way towards their friends.

"Hey man, we were just about to call you guys." Shang said to his friends as he released his grip on Hercules.

"Thank God we found you guys." John said with worry to his tone. "We got a bit of a problem here."

"What's going on?" Hercules asked, furrowing his brow.

"Listen, have any of you heard from Esmeralda or Pocahontas tonight?" Phoebus asked.

Immediately, Shang and Hercules briefly exchanged nervous glances with one another as they turned to focus their attention back on their two friends.

"Pocahontas and I were texting back and forth a few hours ago." Shang said.

"You were?" John asked hopefully. "How long ago exactly?"

"I texted her at 11:55pm."

"Yeah, I spoke on the phone with Esmeralda briefly too." Hercules piped in.

"And what time was that at?" Phoebus asked with hope to his tone.

"Around 11:50pm I think."

"Have any of you spoken to or heard from them since then?" John asked, as Hercules and Shang shook their heads.

"Are you serious?" Phoebus asked, his face falling into a frown.

"Yeah….but what exactly is going on here?" Shang asked sounding confused.

"Look, John and I were at the bar for a few hours." Phoebus began. "I called Esmeralda at 12:20am exact and it sent me straight to her voicemail, so I left her a brief message and told her to call me back. It's now 3:40am and I haven't heard from her at all tonight."

"What? That's impossible, I called her a few hours ago and I spoke with her." Hercules said.

"So wait…Esmeralda didn't call you all night Phoebus?" Shang asked as Phoebus nodded.

"No she didn't, and that's usually not like her to call and check up on me when I'm out late." He stated.

"The same thing goes for Pocahontas too." John bud in. "I texted her the same time Phoebus called Esmeralda. I told her where Phoebus and I were and if she needed anything she could just text or call me, and I haven't gotten a response from her all night."

"What? Come on that can't be right; Hercules and I were in contact with both of them earlier. I texted Pocahontas a few hours ago and we were both texting back and forth for quite some time." Shang said.

"I don't know guys I mean, it's not like her to not respond back to my messages." John stated. "What did they say when you guys spoke to them anyways?"

"I called Esmeralda earlier to see if Meg was there with her." Hercules said. "I haven't heard from or seen Meg all night since she and Mulan left for the gym."

"Gosh, are you serious?" Phoebus asked with worry and fear to his tone as he raised his eyebrows in shock, with Hercules nodding.

"Yeah I mean, she won't pick up my calls, and I must have left her over twenty messages and she still hasn't replied to either one of them."

"What? So….does that mean she's still out with Mulan somewhere?" John asked as Shang shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, I mean, I texted Pocahontas to see Mulan with her too. I texted her bunch of times and not one of them have been replied to. I haven't seen her all night either since she and Meg left for the gym at 8:30pm last night."

"Okay this is just bizarre on so many levels." John said.

"Did you guys ask any of the people from school if they've seen any of them?" Phoebus asked.

Hercules nodded. "We did, we must have stopped by twenty house and apartments to see if they've seen them and none of them have."

"Did you try asking Ariel and Rapunzel?" John asked.

Shang nodded. "We have and even they haven't seen them, but remember Ariel and Rapunzel are leaving in the morning to go camping with a bunch of people."

"That's right I forgot about that…." John said in deep thought."

"Alright okay let me get this straight." Phoebus began. "None of us have heard from our girlfriends for the rest of the night." The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement.

"And you guys checked everywhere for Mulan and Meg?" John turned and asked Shang and Hercules as they both nodded.

"Yeah, I mean we even tried Starbucks but it turns out none of the employees or the customers have seen them tonight." Hercules said.

"Now that you mention it, Pocahontas and Esmeralda could have stopped by Booster Juice earlier from their Pilates and Yoga classes; I know how much she loves her natural fruit smoothies from that place." John piped in.

"But Esmeralda hates those things." Phoebus scrunched up his face.

"I know but even Esmeralda didn't have any, Pocahontas could have bought one for herself."

"So….do you think Esme and Poca could still be at Booster Juice right now?" Shang asked, raising his eyebrow, as Phoebus and John exchanged glances with one another.

"At this time of the night?" Phoebus asked as he checked his watch. "It's late…and I don't think Booster Juice would be open this late."

"You never know, it could be worth a shot." Hercules suggested.

"Wait a second." John said. "Did you guys check them gym? Just to see if Meg and Mulan could still be there?"

"We never thought of that actually." Shang replied. "We figured they would have closed up the gym already."

"It wouldn't hurt to check, just to see if things are okay over there." Phoebus assured them.

"Alright well I guess we should split up then?" Hercules suggested to the gang as they nodded in agreement.

"Alright Hercules, you and Shang go check and see if things around the gym are okay." Phoebus instructed. "John and I will stop by Booster Juice and ask if they've seen anything."

"Alright, we'll meet you guys back at that apartment." Hercules said and with that, each of them went off in pairs as Hercules and Shang made their way down a few blocks towards the gym, while Phoebus and John walked in the opposite direction up quite some blocks towards Booster Juice, hoping to at least find some unsolved answers.

* * *

Finally reaching the gym, Hercules and Shang both stood in shock, their eyes widening in terror as they witnessed the most bizarre thing they have ever seen in their lives; the gym had not at all been closed or locked up. Instead, through the glass window the fluorescent lights were still alive and kicking as they shone down around the gym. The front desk where the manager, Kida usually works was empty and absolutely no one was there in sight. The two stood in silence, but Shang was the first to break it.

"I don't understand." He began. "Didn't Meg and Mulan lock up before they left?"

Hercules slowly shook his head, his eyes blinking rapidly as Shang's voice immediately broke his train of thought and was snapped back to reality.

"I would've thought they would." He replied back. "This isn't like them to do something like this at all. They usually lock up for Kida when they're the only ones left here."

"I know." Shang agreed. "Do you think we should go in? Just to see if everything is okay and intact?"

Hercules hesitated at first but finally gave in and nodded. "I guess we should."

Hercules decided to lead the way as he slowly pulled the door open as Shang followed closely behind, their eyes scanning all around the facility to make sure everything was secure and in contact. The whole place was quiet, and not a sound was made, with exception of the sounds of their large and heavy footsteps swiftly making their way across the facility. Seeing as the machines and the weights were left exactly where they were in their original spots, the two silently sighed in relief but fear still crept inside of them.

Since the rest of the gym equipment was intact, Shang and Hercules quietly made their way towards the change rooms, the sounds of their sneakers squeaking underneath their feet across the marble floor. They peaked inside the men's change room briefly to see that everything was in place, except for the bright fluorescent lights that were still on. Quickly, Shang off the lights and the room instantly went dark. As soon as they made their way towards the women's change rooms, Hercules gently poked his head to see that everything was okay as he was just about to flick the light switch off when all of a sudden, not one but two strange objects immediately caught his eye as he stopped his hand in mid-air as furrowed his brow in confusion.

Without a second thought, Hercules immediately slipped his way inside the women's locker room and slowly headed in the direction of the objects that first caught his eye. As he was inching closer and closer, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the objects, that's when it hit him, hard in the gut, his eyes widening in terror and his face going pale as he realized exactly what those two objects were; they were none other than Meg and Mulan's gym bags that were still zipped open and remained untouched.

"Herc? You coming?" Shang called as he poked his head around the corner inside the change room, his voice echoing and gently bouncing off the walls.

"Shang, you have to come and look at this, now." Hercules demanded as he kept his eyes trained on the bags in front of them.

Confused, Shang slipped inside the change room and made his way over to his friend, furrowing his brow as he came up behind Hercules.

"What am I looking at exactly?" He asked.

Hercules slowly gripped the two gym bags as he turned around to face his friend, the bags dangling in his hands despite the pain he was feeling in his knuckles at the moment. As Shang's eyes came in contact with the gym bags, his face immediately fell, turning pale as he felt sudden sickness to his stomach, his heart beating violently inside of his chest, trying his hardest to keep his breathing calm and steady.

"P-please tell me…that is not Mulan and Meg's bags dangling from your hands…"

Just hearing his friend's statement only made Hercules begin to feel sick to his stomach as well, his heart racing inside of his chest as inhaled a deep breath and exhaled slowly, opening his mouth to speak.

"I…..want to say no but…they are….."

Shang immediately ripped Mulan's bang out of Hercules's hand and gripped onto it firmly, clenching his jaw and his teeth together inside his mouth as he tried his hardest to hold back the anger, fear and frustration that threatened to escape out of his system, but it was too late for that. Gripping onto Mulan's bag in one hand, in a blur Shang used his other to ball up his fist and smash on the nearest locker door that was next to him, the impact of the metal was sure to leave a giant bruise on his knuckles the next morning.

"Shang!" Hercules yelled at his friend, just like how Shang did to him earlier. "Now's not the time to be hurting yourself either."

Shang sucked in a deep and heavy breath and slowly exhaled through his mouth as he tried to calm himself down, knowing that his friend was right.

"You're right, I'm sorry." He mumbled.

"It's okay, don't worry I'm as freaked out as you are right now too." Hercules assured his friend, as Shang nodded, lifting his head up to face his friend when all of a sudden, something unfamiliar caught his eye as he furrowed his brow in confusion, moving closer towards the thing that caught his eye.

"What's the matter?" Hercules asked, furrowing his brow as his gaze followed to where Shang was headed behind him.

It was then when Shang noticed that the locker door in which Hercules was standing in front of was not just closed shut, but looked as if it had been smashed into; looking as if someone had smashed the door shut instead of closing it and what also caught his eye was the big dent inside it.

"Herc, check this out." Shang pointed towards where the dent was. "Why is there a dent in this locker door?"

Hercules leaned in closely to get a better look at the dent behind him; his anxiety was well beginning to boil over inside of him.

"I don't know…." Hercules said in low voice. "The big question is, how did it get there?"

Shang slowly shook his head. "I couldn't tell you….it sure looks like someone bashed something into it though."

The two stood in silence, but Hercules went to take a step back when something cracked and clinked underneath his feet, the sound was unfamiliar to him as he furrowed his brow and lifted his foot to inspect what was underneath. Turning around, it was then when all of sudden, Hercules realized that he had stepped in what looked like…glass….more like shattered glass?

His mouth dropped wide open as his eyes scanned carefully over the trail of shattered glass that was scattered all around the floor, glass that looked strangely identical to mirror pieces. He slowly followed the trail of the broken mirror pieces, keeping his eyes trained pieces below him and suddenly once he was close enough, he slowly lifted his head as his eyes came in contact with what made the color drain from his face; parts of the mirror in front of him broken and the pieces had shattered to the ground. Lowering his head back down towards the ground, it was then when Hercules noticed what looked like blood that covered a few of the pieces and somehow trickled its way onto the ground.

"Shang, you have to look at this." His voice cracked slightly as nerves got to him.

"What is it?" Shang asked as Hercules pointed towards the shattered glass mirror pieces on the ground.

Just seeing the big dent and now having to witness shattered pieces of glass on the ground and what looked like blood before him, Shang was certain he felt the colour drain from his face; he was now beginning to feel sick to his stomach. The two friends stood in silence, staring at the shattered pieces with their jaws literally dropped to the ground, but Hercules was the first to break the silence.

"I-I don't believe this…" Was all he managed to say as Shang agreed.

"T-this is just…..all too freaky and bizarre…."

"But how could that dent have gotten in that door? And how did part of this mirror break and shatter to pieces?" Hercules asked in a panicky tone.

"Do you think that….Mulan and Meg could've…gotten into some sort fight….or something?" Shang asked, his voice shaking.

Hercules immediately shot his head up and turned to frown at his friend. "You mean like….a physical fight with…..some of their girls and women…..in here?"

Shang slowly shook his head and hesitated. "No….I mean with….each other?"

Hercules stared at his friend in shock, wondering why on earth Shang would ever think of something as brutal and as absurd as that. Before he opened his mouth to speak, Hercules couldn't help but slowly take in Shang's words, allowing them to sink in as he himself began to think about this.

"I-I doubt they would ever….fight about anything…..let alone physically fight….with each other." He said.

"I hope not…." Shang said. "But if you think about it…..it could explain why there's a big dent in that door…..and why there are shattered mirror pieces on the ground with blood around them, I mean it sure looked like someone literally smashed their head into that door and the mirror."

"But even it was true." Hercules began. "What would've been the cause of a fight between them?"

"But most importantly, where would they have gone afterwards?" Shang finished.

"We have to get back and tell Phoebus and John." Hercules said quickly as he slung Meg's bag over his shoulder.

"Right but we should snap a few shots of this on our phones….just so we have evidence to show them." Shang suggested.

Hercules sighed and nodded his head in agreement. "If this is our only hope, then so be it."

* * *

"Ma'am, did you see ever this girl tonight?" Phoebus asked a female employee who was currently process of mopping the floors. He held up a recent picture of Esmeralda on his phone, wearing a Fedora on her head with a big smile plastered on her face. The female employee took a better look at the picture, her eyes lit up as she nodded.

"Yes, I did actually." She said in her Australian accent, relief beginning to wash over Phoebus.

"What about this girl? Did you see her too?" John bud in as he also held up a recent picture of Pocahontas on his phone, wearing some sort of French Beret on her head along with goofy and innocent smile that spread across her face. Again, the female employee took another closer look and nodded.

"Yes, I saw that girl too!" She said. "I saw them come in together a few hours ago, they were such sweet girls."

"That's great!" John sighed in relief. "Do you know if they stayed long or if they left right after?"

The girl shook her head. "No they didn't stay. They just picked up their smoothies and left."

"Did they happen to say where exactly they were going?" Phoebus asked.

"Not that I'm aware of." The girl replied. "But I'm pretty sure they were probably on their way home."

"Huh…." John said in deep thought.

"Well, thanks for all your help." Phoebus thanked the girl, as she smiled.

"No problem, it was my pleasure." She smiled as she quickly went back to mopping up the floors, while Phoebus and John and made their way towards the exit door and slipped outside in the night as a cool breeze swept over the two of them.

"Well that was somewhat helpful." John broke the silence as they made their way back towards Phoebus's car.

"The important thing is that at least someone has seen them around tonight." Phoebus said, as John nodded in agreement.

"Yeah I agree with you on that one." John agreed. "But even if the girl said that they might have gone home, they would've called or texted us just to let us know they're okay."

"I know, I know but right now we just have to focus on getting back to the apartment as soon as possible to see if they're home safe and sound."

"Alright, but we should tell Hercules and Shang to meet us back at the apartment."

Before Phoebus could get another word in, once again as if on cue, the heavy impact of the vibration from Phoebus's phone inside his pocket stopped him short in his tracks as he quickly pulled his phone out from his pocket, clicking it open as his eyes scanned over the bright screen in front of him that reflected off of his face. His eyes lit as his phone read in small letters that he had received a text message, hoping to God that it was Esmeralda texting him back to respond to his phone call that he had sent her earlier.

As his thumb hovered over the screen and pressed the 'go to inbox' button, his face fell as a frown crept onto his face, furrowing his brow, his eyes scanning over the black bold letters from the text message which was from none other than Hercules.

_From: Hercules_

_You and John have to get back to the apartment quick, Shang and I need to tell you guys something and it's really important! Get here ASAP!_

"What's up?" John asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

"I just got a text from Hercules; he said that he and Shang need us to hurry back to the apartment as soon as possible." Phoebus replied as he quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket.

"What? Did he say why?" John asked as the two began speed walking down the sidewalk.

"No he didn't say. He just wants us back at the apartment ASAP!"

"Do you think maybe the girls are at home and are safe?" John asked sounding hopeful.

"I hope so." Phoebus said. "I just hope it's not anything bad." And with that, the two picked up their pace and fell into a quick jog as they both climbed inside Phoebus's car, roared the engine to life and sped off into the night.

* * *

Sooner or later, Phoebus and John quickly pulled up into their reserved parking space and the two quickly piled out of Phoebus's car, making sure that it was locked as they hurried towards the apartment and slipped their way inside through the side doors, jogging up only two flights of stairs since they all lived on the second floor, which did benefit in some way. Throwing the door open once they made it to their floor, John and Phoebus bounded their way down the quiet hallway but began to bring down their pace as they came in contact with Shang and Hercules standing outside their doors, the two of them looking as if they had just seen a ghost or worse, the devil.

"Herc, I got your text, what's the big emergency?" Phoebus asked as they approached their friends.

Sucking in a deep breath, Hercules slowly lifted up the object that was slung over his shoulder, which was none other than Meg's opened gym bag that she had abandoned back at the gym, the bag dangling from his hand, with Phoebus's eyes growing wider in shock as he eyed the object down carefully.

"I-isn't that…..Meg's gym bag…?" He asked as Hercules nodded. "Where did you find that?"

"I found it back at the gym; she left it in the change room." Hercules confessed.

"Back at the gym? But that's impossible, the gym is supposed to be closed." John said, furrowing his brow.

"That's we thought, until we saw that the facility was still open." Shang cut in, as he slowly lifted that same identical object in his hand so that his friends could get a better look at it. Once John and Phoebus's eyes came in contact with what looked like Mulan's gym bag, their eyes grew wide in terror as fear and anxiety began to arise inside of them.

"Tell me that's not…..Mulan's gym bag too you're holding Shang." John begged, as Shang nodded in his head in shame.

"She left hers back at the gym too." He confessed.

"You guys this is just bizarre on so many levels." John said worriedly, as the rest of the gang agreed.

"But why would Meg and Mulan leave their gym bags behind?" Phoebus asked.

"We're trying to figure that out." Hercules replied.

"And neither of them are here either." Shang piped in. "Hercules and I just checked our rooms to see if Meg and Mulan were there but there's absolutely no sign of them!"

"What? Are you sure?" John asked as the two nodded.

"We are! I mean we're not kidding, the rooms are empty!" Hercules said in panicky tone.

"But how is that even possible? I mean where else could they have gone at this time of the night?"

"I don't know! You tell me man!" Shang wailed.

"Okay, okay guys, let's just try and calm down here for a second, alright?" Phoebus ordered sternly as the three fell silent.

"Well I doubt that Pocahontas would be out this late." John spoke up. "Maybe Mulan could be in my room with her right now."

"I doubt it." Shang muttered.

"Well it's true! I mean, Herc, maybe Meg is probably in Phoebus's room with Esmeralda right this very minute."

"It doesn't seem like they are." Hercules interjected. "I don't even hear those familiar sounds of laughter and chatting."

"Well then maybe they could all be sleeping!" John argued back.

"John, wake up man! Okay this is serious!" Shang argued.

"I am being serious! I mean it's not my fault that I don't want to jump to any conclusions too quickly!"

"John, for once can you please just stay on the same page as the rest of us?" Hercules shouted. "Honestly, you need to get your head out the clouds and start looking what's around you this very minute!"

"Well sorry for trying to make sense of everything!" John shouted back. "I mean yes I'm freaking out too but I don't want to jump to any conclusions just yet!"

"Okay guys can you all just shut up and stop arguing?" Phoebus yelled, his voice booming throughout the hallway as the three fell in silence yet again, trying to catch their breaths and to keep calm.

"Okay how about we settle this now; John and Shang check in your room to see if there's any sign of Pocahontas and Mulan. Hercules and I will check my place to see if Esmeralda and Meg are there." Phoebus instructed as everyone agreed and set off in pairs.

Phoebus made his way towards his room that he and Esmeralda shared with Hercules tagging along behind him in silence. Once they made it towards Phoebus's room just as he was about to pull out his keys from his pocket, they immediately stopped dead in their tracks, both their eyes widening in shock and their mouths were dropped open as they witnessed the one thing that made their eyes literally pop out of their sockets.

Of course, Phoebus was shocked to find that the door to his apartment had been left wide open, with the lights that were still on, the bed remained perfectly made and untouched and there was absolutely no sign of Esmeralda or Meg for that matter.

"How the hell did this happen?" Phoebus asked in shock as he carefully made his way inside.

"Dude, do you think someone could've….broken into your apartment?" Hercules asked, following closely behind as the two scanned the room carefully.

Phoebus ignored the question, his eyes darting in every direction of the room around him, carefully scanning over his surroundings. Seeing as a few things remained untouched and intact, it was then when Phoebus noticed that the window was left wide open, the cool air seeping its way inside the room as the cool breeze sent shivers and goose bumps on his skin. Furrowing his brow, Phoebus walked over towards the window and briefly poked his head out into the night as he carefully scanned the area. Sticking his head back in, he closed the window shut and made sure to lock it.

"Why would Esmeralda leave this thing open all night?" He muttered under his breath.

"Dude, why is your bathroom light on?" Hercules called from the washroom. Hearing his friend's voice, Phoebus frowned and made his way over towards the washroom, seeing as his friend was indeed right about the lights shining above.

"I don't know…..why would Esmeralda leave the light on and the window open all night? I know she's not careless like that when it comes to things like this." Phoebus responded.

"Looks like she left the shower curtain open too." Hercules said as he stared at the empty ceramic polished shower in front of him.

Phoebus groaned in annoyance. "Well, she was definitely here tonight."

"But if she was here…..then where would she have gone?" Hercules asked. "I mean where would she be at this time of the night?"

Phoebus shook his head and sighed. "I don't know man, but if Meg didn't come home at all tonight, where could she be at this moment?"

"I wish I had the answer to that one, dude."

Silence filled the air between the two, with Hercules clutching desperately onto Meg's gym bag tightly, as if it was the only thing he had left of her, completely forgetting about the pictures of the locker room he and Shang managed to snap earlier before they left. Shaking his head and sighing as he looked stared down at the ground, it was then when something suddenly caught Phoebus's eye, furrowing his brow as he slowly crouched down towards the tiled floor underneath him, squinting his eyes and found what looked like to be a few tiny drops of red blood on the ground, fear and anxiety beginning to boil over inside of him.

"Herc, you need to come and look at this." Phoebus demanded as his friend obeyed his orders and immediately crouched down beside Phoebus, his eyes beginning to widen in shock.

"Please tell me…that's not what I think it is…" Hercules mumbled in hope as the two inched closer towards the dark coloured liquid that glistened in the light. However their train of the thought was cut short as the sound of two heavy footsteps busted their way inside Phoebus's apartment and in come a frantic John along with a fearful Shang following behind, still clutching onto Mulan's gym bag tightly.

"Guys, there's no sign of Pocahontas or Mulan!" John said, sounding out of breath. "The room is completely empty!"

"I can't believe this!" Shang groaned in anger. "Honestly, what the hell is going on here?"

"You guys…..we have bigger problems…" Phoebus began, not taking his eyes off the red liquid below him. "Look at this."

Exchanging confused and worried glances with one another, John and Shang obeyed Phoebus's order and crouched down beside their friends, the four young men huddling in a circle as they all witnessed the tiny drops of blood on the tiled floor beneath them, as John's eyes widened in terror while Shang's mouth dropped open.

"This isn't what I think it is…..is it?" Shang asked, feeling sick to his stomach by the words the slipped out of his mouth.

"This can't be…" John mumbled, shaking his head at the sight as he rose up from his crouching position and took a few steps back, his heart beginning to beat rapidly inside of his chest, while the rest of the gang all rose to their feet, their faces going pale.

"That's it guys; I say we call the police and report four missing people." Hercules suggested right off the bat. At first, the rest all exchanged worried glances with one another, feeling somewhat hesitant at their friend's suggestion. Phoebus turned to face his friend, the two stared right into each other's fearful and worried eyes.

"You really think we should do this so soon?" He asked carefully.

"Phoebus, man it's already 4:30am and our girlfriends are nowhere to be found." John said. "I have to go with Hercules on this one."

"John's right." Shang agreed. "It may be too soon to get the police involved but think about it; neither of our girlfriends would stay out this late without even contacting us, and we've heard from neither of them at all tonight. I have to agree with Hercules and John on this one too."

Phoebus let a sigh escape from his mouth as his friends kept their fearful and hopeful eyes on him, waiting to receive some sort of answer from their friend. Silence fell amongst the four men, but Phoebus let out another sigh and nodded his head in agreement.

"Alright, let's do this quickly!" He instructed as he pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and quickly began dialling the three most common and used digits into his phone, while the rest of the hang quickly hovered around him. Phoebus decided to put the phone on speaker so each of them could speak into the receiver when needed.

The line began to ring, the hollow sound echoed in the bathroom and gently bounced off the walls, the four of them sucking in deep breaths through their noses and out quietly through their mouths as they waited for the line to pick up on the other end, feeling nervous and fearful. It was then on the second and last ring, the line was immediately picked up on the other end.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?" A friendly female voice asked from the other end. Phoebus decided he would take the upper hand as he inhaled a deep breath and exhaled slowly as he began to speak in through the receiver.

"I'd like to report…..not one…..but four missing people…."

* * *

**Wow! Things are really starting to get spooky eh? Gosh, it's been quite some time since I last updated this story! Again and as always, I apologize for such a long delay. For the past few months, I've been battling a bad case of writer's block with this story, but I'm glad that I was able to push through it and get back to writing this. I hate keeping you guys waiting for such long period of time because I know there are a lot of you that are enjoying this story a lot and I don't feel that it's fair for me to keep you guys waiting for such a long period of time for the next update! So again, I really want to apologize for that and I hope I still have my awesome readers/reviewers out there. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I promise you there will be plenty more ahead. Again and as always, I want to give a big shout and a special thank you to all my amazing reviewers: Wolf's Willow, CoConut LUVer, queenbeautyhair, McKenna45, and my three newest fans/reviewers: bs13, FloraIrmaTylee and Purplepox63010 and last but not least, to two very best and closest friends: supersmashkingdomhearts1999 and Suzerenma! You guys are seriously the most awesome people out there and I'm so grateful that you guys continue to enjoy my story. As always, don't forget to show your love and support by R&R! Thanks so much guys! Mwah! Xoxoxo***

**Oh and one more thing I want to ask you guys first! If there are any of you who are great artists whether its drawing, sketching, or simply editing pictures, posters or book covers digitally, (seeing as I absolutely hate my book cover for this story lol), would any of you be willing to help me out a little with creating a new book cover for this story? It would honestly help a lot!:-) But you guys don't have to if you don't want to lol. Just thought I'd ask you guys briefly:-) **

**Anyways, don't forget to R&R! Until next chapter….**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**April 14****th**** - 9:30am – 13 Hours**

**Location: The Apartment**

It was finally morning; the sun shining brightly down upon the city of San Jose, awakening from its slumber. It's been five hours since the four frantic young men had made their emergency phone call to the police to report their girlfriends as missing but in reality, it's been thirteen hours since any of the girls have last been seen. Due to an emergency line up was the reason why it took the police officers five hours to rush over to the men's apartment. Thankfully sooner or later in the blink of an eye, Phoebus's room that he shared with Esmeralda was currently being investigated; with a variety of different police officers searching around the room for anything suspicious, seeing as Phoebus and the rest of the men left his uneven room just how it was, not wanting to risk wiping away any sort of evidence that could lead them to finding their girlfriends.

As Phoebus, Hercules, John Smith and Shang remained standing in the hallway anxiously, it was then when not two but four detectives had hurriedly rushed their way down the hall, eager to get their hands on the investigation. Two of them were both men. One was completely buffed and extremely tall with short blonde hair, his huge muscles was pretty much visible through his dark brown jacket while the other man had short, dark brown hair with luscious locks. He also looked pretty buffed, but not as buffed as the other one. Alongside these two male detectives, they were followed by two female detectives, which both happened to be their partners. The first had short red hair and her body had all the right curves in the right places, that were also pretty visible through her long short black jacket, while the other one had incredibly long red hair that was tied down in a braid with a slim, fit figure, but she didn't have the curves like the first woman did.

As the four detectives finally approached the four young men, the tall blonde man was the first to speak.

"Phoebus, Hercules, John Smith and Shang?" He asked as the four men stared up at him and nodded.

"Hello, I'm detective Bob Parr." Bob said, introducing himself. He looked to be somewhere in his late to early forties.

The four young men nodded their heads as a means to say 'hello' as Detective Bob continued on.

"This is my partner and also my wife, Detective Helen Parr." He introduced, motioning to the short, red-haired, curvy woman standing to his left as she nodded 'hello', looking to be somewhere in her mid to late thirties.

"And I'm Detective Shrek." The dark-haired man piped in as he introduced himself in his English/Scottish sounding accent, looking to be in his early to mid-thirties. "And this is my partner and wife, Detective Fiona."

Upon hearing her name being said, the young woman who looked to be somewhere in her early to late twenties stood to his right as she nodded a 'hello' as well.

"It's come to our attention that you guys reported four missing young women?" Bob asked as he immediately dug through his pocket to retrieve his notepad and his pen.

Phoebus nodded. "Yes sir."

"Alright, well we're going to need their names, their ages and how long you've all been together with them, if you don't mind." Shrek said, notepad and pen ready in his hands as Detectives Helen and Fiona, who both had theirs out as well.

"If it isn't a bother." John began anxiously, reaching for his cellphone in his pocket. "We each have pictures of each of them on our phones if you need to get a better description of each."

"That will do, thanks." Helen thanked the young man. "But we're still going to need all of their names and their ages as well."

"Right!" John remembered, clumsily shaking his head. "Well, here is a picture of my girlfriend, Pocahontas Bedard. She just turned nineteen on the 6th of April. We've been together for about two years." He said, handing his phone to Detective Shrek with a recent picture of Pocahontas glistening on the screen of his phone.

"I umm…" Hercules began nervously, grabbing his phone from his pocket. "I have a recent picture of my girlfriend and me while we were in Mexico. Her name is Megara Egan, we've been together for about three years, and she's eighteen years old but she will be turning nineteen in May."

Detective Helen gently took the cellular device from Hercules's hand as she vividly examined the digital photo of the young happy couple, careful to examine the young woman whom the young man was carrying in his arms at the moment intently.

"I suppose, you both have recent pictures of the other young women, which I'm assuming to that they're your girlfriends as well?" Detective Fiona questioned as she nodded her head towards a concerned Phoebus and an anxious Shang as the two seemed to be lost in space at the moment.

Phoebus felt as the woman's question immediately pulled him out of his thoughts as he shook his head and quickly reached for his cellphone from his pocket, anxiously pulling the small device from the pouch of his jeans.

"Oh…right!" He said dumbfounded. "This is a picture of my girlfriend, Esmeralda Moore. She just turned nineteen back on March 8th and we've been together for four years." He instructed as he handed his cellphone to Detective Bob of a recent picture of his girlfriend.

"Mulan Wen. We've been together for two years." Shang said, handing his cellular device to Detective Fiona. "That was taken somewhat recently back on our vacation in Cuba. She's eighteen turning nineteen in June."

As the four detectives each studied the pictures of the four young women glistening on the tiny cellular devices carefully as the four men patiently waited for some sort of response, Detective Bob was the first to break the silence as he lifted his eyes to eye each one of the young men down carefully, already beginning to jot down some information and a possible description, before he opened his mouth to speak.

"Alright, we should be able to get some work done with these pictures." He muttered. "So exactly when was the last time any of you have seen these women?"

The four men exchanged worried glances with one another as Hercules decided to speak.

"Around 8:30pm last night." He confirmed, still clutching onto Meg's gym bag.

"Last night?" Detective Helen questioned in concern as they all nodded.

"And when was the last time you've all heard from any of them?" Detective Fiona asked.

"Well…" Shang began while clutching onto Mulan's gym bag. "The last time I've seen or heard from my girlfriend, Mulan was around 8:30pm, that same time."

"The same thing applies for my girlfriend, Meg too." Hercules joined in.

"Do you know where they were going at that time?" Detective Helen asked.

"They went to the gym." Shang confessed.

"And what's the name of the gym they went to?"

"Silicon Valley Athletic Club." Hercules said. "Actually, the four of us have memberships there so we all go there usually three times a week."

"And what about you guys?" Bob asked, nodding towards Phoebus and John. "When was the last time any of you have heard or seen from your girlfriends?"

"A little bit after 8:30, possibly around 8:45pm." Phoebus confirmed.

"And neither of you have heard from them since then." Shrek confirmed as the two young men nodded.

"But Hercules and Shang said that they were both in contact with Esmeralda and Pocahontas." John suddenly remembered. "I remember the time was after 10:30pm."

"Oh?" Bob asked, focusing his attention towards the other two. "What time was this at?"

"I-I remember that I called Esmeralda…..at 11:50pm that night." Hercules began. "She answered her phone and spoke back and forth."

"Alright and what time were you in contact with Pocahontas?" Shrek asked Shang.

"11:55pm." He confessed. "I texted her and she answered my text and we were kind of texting back and forth briefly."

"So….these conferences were just very brief?" Helen confirmed said as the two young men nodded.

"May I ask what you two were talking about with Esmeralda and Pocahontas at that time?" Fiona asked.

Hercules gulped nervously as he and Shang exchanged worried glances, before turning back to face the two women, opening his mouth to speak.

"I remember calling Esmeralda to ask if Meg was with her at that time, and she said no, that she hadn't seen Meg all night." He confessed.

"And I texted Pocahontas for the same reason; asking her if Mulan happened to be with her as well, but she said the same thing that Esmeralda said to Hercules." Shang confessed as he joined in.

"So, that time you both contacted Esmeralda and Pocahontas, neither of you have both heard from or seen of Meg and Mulan since they left for the gym at 8:30pm that night?" Helen said, jotting down the information as Hercules and Shang nodded.

"And where were you both last night?" Fiona asked.

"Umm….we both just stayed in and hung out with each other that night in my room." Shang said. "But since we both didn't hear from Meg and Mulan last night, Hercules and I both went out to look for them, and that's when we contact Esmeralda and Pocahontas."

"And where were you two last night?" Shrek asked Phoebus and John.

"John and I decided to hit the bar last night, but that wasn't until 12:00am this morning." Phoebus began. "Before that, we went out to grab a bite to eat and that was at 8:45pm."

"And did Esmeralda and Pocahontas say they were going anywhere last night?" Bob asked.

"Yeah, they did." John said. "I remember that Pocahontas told me that she and Esmeralda were going to attend their Yoga session for the night."

"Okay now I just want to ask one more question." Shrek began. "Did any of these women say to you that they would be heading out to someplace else?"

The four men shook their heads.

"Not that we know of." Phoebus said.

"We doubt that they would be out passed 1:30am." Hercules said.

"And even if they were," John began. "They would usually text all of us to let us know that they're okay, or if they're going to be out longer than expected."

"I just want to throw in another question here." Helen politely piped in. "Have of any of your girlfriends had any kind of problems with certain people? Or any sort of family problems perhaps?"

The four men briefly exchanged worried apprehensive glances with one another but slowly shook their heads.

"Not that….any of us knows of….exactly." Shang said hesitantly.

"Even if that was the case," Phoebus began. "We'd definitely be the first to know about that kind of stuff."

"Well if that's the case, then we're most likely going to need the numbers and contacts of their immediate relatives just to get some more information on each of them." Bob stated, only to have the four men nervously shake their heads as their faces immediately turned pale white.

"Umm sir, with all due respect," John began tensely. "Umm, maybe that's not…..such a good idea at this point."

"And with all due respect to you young man," Helen began gently, her tone sounding somewhat firm. "Something as serious as this is part of jobs to report this immediately to a victim's immediate relatives."

Right after Helen's statement, it wasn't long until the sound of a loud ring erupted within the hallway as it quietly echoed and bounced off the walls. Of course, the ring was coming from none other than Detective Fiona's cellphone as she quickly dug her hands inside her pocket and retrieved her noisy device, signalling that this was probably another emergency. She quickly flipped it open as she murmured into the phone.

"Hello, Detective Fiona speaking." She said as she slowly walked off with the phone glued to her ear.

"What's that you got there, son?" Bob asked Hercules, furrowing his brow as he nodded towards the heavy bag that he was carrying in his arms. Feeling the anxiety arise within his system, Hercules nervously gulped as he cautiously presented the evidence to Detective Helen.

"Umm…" He began. "T-this is Meg's gym bag."

"And you, son?" Shrek nodded towards the sac that Shang was currently clutching on to as he warily presented his evidence to Detective Shrek, beginning to feel the fear and anxiety arise within him as well.

"Y-yeah…um…this is Mulan's gym bag as well."

Detective Helen's only response was gasp subtly as she knitted her eyebrows towards the evidence that had just been presented to both her and her partner, the two of them suspiciously eyeing the items down. It didn't take long until she lifted her gaze to focus on the two men standing in front of her, as her only instinct was to think that maybe, just maybe the two could somehow be guilty.

"Where did you two find these?" She asked them cautiously, only to have Hercules and Shang exchanged concerned glances with one another, before Shang sighed heavily and turned to focus his attention on the woman standing in front of him.

"Umm…..well," He began, using his hand to rub the back of his neck. "We um….we sort of…found these…-"

"You guys!" Detective Fiona's voice interrupted Shang's confession as she rushed down the hallway towards her team, slightly out of breath. "That was Chief Rick. He said that there was an emergency 911 call for breaking and entering at the Silicon Valley gym!"

Immediately, Shang and Hercules's faces both paled at what they had just heard, both feeling sick to their stomachs. Before Bob could a word in, it wasn't long until one of the police officers who were currently investigating Phoebus's apartment room, quickly rushed towards the four detectives.

"Detectives, we may have found something! You got to come check this out!"

"Alright!" Bob instructed, focusing his attention on his teammates and to the four young men standing before him. "Helen and Fiona, you take Hercules and Shang down to Silicon Valley. Shrek and I will stay behind with Phoebus and John to check this situation out."

The two women nodded as Shrek handed Shang's evidence to Fiona, while Hercules and Shang wasted no time in following the two women down the hall, quickly making their way towards the exit.

* * *

**10:30am – 14 Hours**

**Location: Silicon Valley Athletic Club**

After an hour of questions confrontations and, Detectives Helen and Fiona quickly pulled up to the fitness facility in their cruiser, with Shang and Hercules riding in the back seat as the four of them all jumped out of the cruiser and rushed their inside the facility.

The inside of the fitness centre seemed perfectly fine, with only the bright fluorescent lights that still remained shining down as the brightness blanketed the entire facility. After stopping in their tracks while searching around the fitness equipment's for any sign of suspicion, it wasn't long until a member of the police squad called out to catch Detective Helen and Fiona and motioned for them to advance their way over towards where the women's change room was located.

Wasting no time, the two redheads hurried over towards the change room, with Hercules and Shang nervously following behind while they both clutched onto Meg and Mulan's gym bags, which Helen and Fiona had mention to the both to hold on to them for the time being. As the four of them rounded the corner and slipped inside the women's change room, the detectives immediately stopped in their tracks as their jaws literally dropped to the ground, witnessing the shattered glass that was sprawled all around the floor and carefully made their way inside towards where the rest of the police officers were standing, making sure to cautiously step over the broken pieces.

To Hercules and Shang's horror as they poked their heads inside the room, their fearful eyes came in contact with what that same familiar, tanned skin and white haired looking young woman who happened to be in her mid-twenties and immediately Hercules and Shang knew exactly who that was. A frantic Kida; the manager of the facility, murmuring and rambling on in panic to one of the police officers as she quickly scribbled down on her notepad and nodded as she spoke.

"Detective Helen Parr." The woman said as she held up her golden badge. "This is my partner, Detective Fiona. What seems to be the problem here?"

The white haired young woman took a deep breath and began to speak, in a fast and panicky tone.

"I come in here, and my facility is a mess!" Kida wailed, throwing her arms up in the air. "The gym was open all night and the change room is a…..a disaster!"

"Okay, okay, honey, we're going to need you to just calm down, take a deep breath and slowly explain to us what-"

"Calm down? Calm down!" Kida roared in anger, steam pretty much beginning to seep out of her ears. "How do you expect me to calm down? This facility belongs to my father and he put me in charge as manager! If he finds out about this-!"

"Whoa Kida, relax!" Hercules bud in as he carefully made his way fully inside the change room with Shang following close behind him.

The young woman immediately tore her piercing glare from Detective Helen and scowled at Hercules as she angrily marched up towards him and Shang.

"Don't you dare tell me to relax, Hercules!" She shouted heatedly. "This is yours and Shang's fault!"

"Whoa, us?" Shang demanded bitterly as he scowled back at her. "We had nothing to do with this!"

"Oh you're right. This is both of your girlfriends' faults!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Hey!" Detective Fiona's booming voice instantly shut the three up. "Now is not the time to be pointing fingers!"

"I don't care!" Kida roared back as she angrily turned to face the detectives. "I want you to find those little bitches and arrest them! Arrest them for trashing up my facility!"

"Hey!" Hercules barked furiously at what the manager just mentioned.

"Don't you dare call our girlfriends' that word!" Shang threatened through clenched teeth.

"Okay, that is enough!" Detective Helen yelled as current silence fell amongst everyone else. "Yelling, shouting and accusing each other are not going to help this situation."

Kida scowled as she crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head and all she could feel was fear, anger and anxiety beginning to raise within her. Once it was completely silent, Detective took this as an opportunity to speak.

"Okay now Kida, we'll start with you first." She began gently. "What happened when you first walked into this place?"

Heaving a heavy sigh while trying to maintain her cool, Kida opened her mouth to speak.

"I was on my way to work," She began in calm but firm tone. "I had stopped by Starbucks to get my usual Frappuccino. And then the next thing I know when I'm approaching my facility, I see that the lights are still on, and the doors were left unlocked. So I got scared; I started to freak out and so I let myself in and made sure that the gym equipment and everything was all intact and that nothing had been touched or went missing. So I go over to the change rooms; the men's change room is perfectly fine and then that's when I finally laid my eyes on the women's change room, disaster! I mean I come in and I see part of the mirror has been shattered with the broken pieces still left on the ground and then I come in and I see this huge dent in one of the lockers!"

Kida pointed towards the shattered glass and the dented locker as this caught everyone's attention, with Detective Fiona crouching down and slipping her plastic gloves on to investigate the shattered mirror pieces on the ground while Detective Helen on the other hand stepped over towards the where the dented locker was located, carefully examining the huge dent that was left on the metal door.

"Are you an employee here?" Detective Helen asked as she turned to focus her attention on the young woman standing before her, with Hercules and Shang keeping quiet as they silently stood behind Kida.

Kida nodded. "I'm the manager here. My father owns this entire facility. He retired a few years back and passed down the managing job to me."

"So you've….pretty much worked here all your life?"

"Yes."

"How long exactly?"

Kida shrugged as she thought deeply about the answer. "About five years."

"And how do you know Hercules and Shang so well?"

"Hercules's parents and mine are very close friends," Kida started, only to be interrupted by Hercules.

"It's true." He confessed. "Since both mine and her parents are such close friends, Kida' father was able to pull some strings and get Shang, Meg, Mulan and me a good deal so that we could have full-time memberships, as opposed to always having to depend on the 50% student discount that would usually last only a few months."

"So you three know each other pretty well then, huh."

"Well I thought I _knew _them pretty well." Kida growled. "But based on what I'm seeing here, it turns out I misinterpreted these people as criminals!"

"Hey!" Shang barked. "Don't be turning around and putting all this bullshit on us!"

"If we're such criminals," Hercules threatened. "Why don't you tell Detective Helen here how you would always let only the four of us stay past 11:30pm, closing time and trust us to lock up after you would decide to leave early?"

Kida's eyes widened in terror but with a mixture of anger and fury as she felt that her blood was beginning to heat up and boil over any minute. Upon hearing this, Detective Helen gave somewhat of a knowing and surprised look as she kept her gaze on a furious Kida.

"Oh?" She asked knowingly. "Kida, you trusted the four of them to stay past 11:30pm and lock up for you when they were finished?"

The young woman sighed heavily. "Okay, okay, yes I would allow them to stay only fifteen minutes past 11:30pm closing time. I trusted them enough to lock up as soon as they were finished."

"Oh, so I'm assuming you would have given the girls a key to lock up after they were finished their workout?"

Kida nodded. "Yes, I remember giving the key to Meg right after when I left the gym last night."

"And what time did you leave?"

"Like a few minutes before 11:30 hit, probably around 11:26pm." Kida admitted. "But please, you cannot let my father know that I do something like this. He will take my job away if he finds out."

"That probably won't be necessary." Detective Helen began. "But you're convinced that Meg and Mulan both had something to do with trashing the change room and refusing to lock up your facility."

The young woman nodded quickly. "Yes! It had to be them! They were the only ones that were still here when I left!"

"But Kida, I doubt that Meg and Mulan would do something like this to you." Shang cut in. "This isn't like them to vandalize your property."

"Look, I don't care what you think!" Kida immediately roared. "I know that they were the last ones here, so all of this had to be their creative project!"

"Kida-"

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted any of you people, especially those ungrateful bitches!"

"Kida just-"

"Now thanks to you idiots, I'm going to lose my job!"

"Kida it wasn't them!" Hercules shouted.

"You don't know that!" She shouted back.

"Kida if it was them, then why would they leave their gym bags behind?" Shang yelled as he and Hercules both held up each of their evidence.

"Wait a minute," Detective Helen piped in, furrowing her brow in confusion. "How would you two have known they'd left their gym bags here?"

Upon hearing their question and not realizing what their actions may have caused at the moment, Hercules and Shang turned pale white as their hearts began thudding inside of their chest, realizing what they had just done and said. After exchanging apprehensive glances with one another, Shang sucked in a deep breath and heaved a deep sigh, as he began to speak.

"We found these…earlier this morning."

"How much earlier?" Helen asked, frowning.

"Umm…..I think it was….3:50am." Hercules confessed as he and Shang gently set the bags down on the small bench that stood beside them.

Kida's eyes popped wide open in fury. "So…you mean to tell me that you both had already seen how damaged the change rooms were?"

Hercules sighed. "Yes, but Kida listen-"

"So you both were here this morning and none of you said anything?" She shouted.

Shang nodded. "Yes, but we-"

"Why didn't you people just call the damn police?" Kida roared in fury.

"Yeah, why didn't you notify the police earlier about this?" Helen demanded as she continued frowning.

"Because we….we panicked!"

"We were just…..so freaked out when we saw Meg and Mulan's gym bags just sitting on the bench, both untouched. We….didn't know what to do so we just left!" Hercules confessed defensively.

"Bullshit!" Kida yelled.

"You realize that this area is considered a crime scene." Helen explained firmly. "And since the both of you appeared in the scene, it makes you both look guilty."

"Look, we swear neither of us had anything to do with this." Shang said, holding up in his hands in surrender. "And neither does Mulan or Meg."

"He's right; with Meg and Mulan mysteriously gone missing and not hearing from either of them all night, we just freaked when we saw that their gym bags were left behind, so we took them with us." Hercules admitted.

Upon hearing Hercules's confession, the heat and fury from within Kida's system began to subside as the rough emotions slowly poured out of her and was immediately replaced with sympathy and worry, her face beginning to soften.

"Missing?" She asked. "What do you mean missing?"

"That's actually what we were trying to get at, Kida." Helen said, immediately focusing her attention on the young woman. "We were wondering if you could give us some answers."

Kida quickly shook her head as she carefully eyed the two young men carefully.

"I-I…..when did this happen?" She asked.

"8:30pm was the last time Shang and I saw them before they left for the gym." Hercules said.

"Haven't you heard from them since?"

Shang shook his head. "No, and Hercules and I called them numerous amount of times and even sent them a bunch of text messages, but neither of them have answered one of our calls."

"We've been looking for them all night," Hercules continued. "And that's why we came here. We didn't think that they would be irresponsible enough to still be at the gym past 11:45pm, so we came here just in case to see if everything was okay, but it turns out we've seen that they've both left their gym bags behind."

"I'm sorry to bud in," Detective Helen began. "But Kida, you pretty much know most of the members that attend your facility, right?"

Kida nodded. "Yes, I do."

"Have you noticed anyone new or suspicious looking that maybe happened to have just joined the gym?"

Kida thought for a moment, but slowly shook her head. "Not that I know of, I pretty much know everyone here. And if there was anyone suspicious, I would have phoned the police right away if that were the case."

"So neither of you has seen absolutely any sign of any unusual person?"

The three of them shook their heads.

"Not that we've seen." Hercules said.

"Yeah, I mean, not a lot of people come here because it's quite an expensive facility." Shang piped in.

"Alright well I just have another question," Detective Helen started. "Have Meg and Mulan ever been left alone in the gym past closing time?"

"No, never." Shang said.

"They would always be with us when we stayed past 11:30pm." Hercules said.

"Ah so, this is the very first time that they've both been left together, alone here." Helen clarified as the three young adults nodded their heads in shame.

"Helen." Fiona called from the ground as she was still crouched down. "You have to come and look at this; we might have a hit on something here."

Wasting no time, Helen immediately crouched down beside her partner and quickly slipped on a pair of plastic gloves, while Hercules, Shang and Kida sheepishly crouched down beside the detectives and set their eyes on the shattered glass pieces below them.

"What have we got so far?" Helen asked, examining the broken pieces of glass. Fiona carefully reached out to grab a single, shiny piece of glass from the ground and brought it within Helen's face. The woman took the shiny object from her partner's hand and carefully examined the object, squinting her eyes to get a better look, as they came in contact with what looked like, blood.

"Blood?" She asked as her eyes slightly began to widen, with Fiona nodding her head.

"If you look carefully, some of these pieces of glass have bits of now dry blood trickling down the sides." She said.

"But….how?"

"If you take a look at the broken mirror," Detective Fiona began as she stretched her way up and walked towards the smashed mirror and gently ran her fingers down the side of the broken glass, with Helen and the rest of the young adults following closely behind her. "Based on what we've seen, I would say it looked like someone definitely had their head smashed into it."

"How can you tell?" Shang asked nervously.

"Because if you look close enough, the sides of the mirror have left trail of dry blood going down to where the mirror was cracked and shattered." Fiona began. "And judging by the rest of the shattered pieces on the ground and the piece that I gave to Helen with the blood on it, I would say someone definitely smashed their head into this thing."

"Is there a way you can find out for sure if that's the case?" Hercules asked.

Detective Fiona nodded. "Yes, we would have to take this to the crime lab to be investigated and to see if there are any possible traces of DNA that could've been left behind."

"But how would you explain that dent in the locker over there?" Kida asked, pointing in the direction where the locker was located.

Without hesitation, Detective Helen furrowed her brow and quickly made her way towards the locker while the other followed behind her. She leaned in close enough to squint her eyes carefully as she ran her thumb over the huge, dented metal, searching for any trace of anything suspicious.

"Do you see anything?" Kida asked.

Without a second long glance, something immediately caught the woman's eye as she leaned in closely, her brown eyes coming in contact with what looked like small inconspicuous stains of dry blood. Helen quickly dug through her pocket and pulled out a cotton swab as she gently dabbed the cotton onto the dry liquid and began to swab, trying to obtain as much as possible for a trace of DNA.

"What did you find?" Fiona asked her partner.

"Looks like some left over dry blood here as well." Helen said as she finished swabbing, sticking the evidence in plastic bag along with the blood covered shattered piece of glass.

"More blood?" Hercules asked anxiously, immediately feeling sick to his stomach. "What does that mean?"

"Judging by what I've just seen, this also looks like someone smashed their head into this locker door, which would explain the large dent."

"So what exactly does this mean?" Kida asked. "Did Mulan and Meg get into a fight with each other or something?"

"That's what we suspected too." Shang murmured.

"Do Mulan and Meg usually get along with each other?" Fiona asked.

"Yeah, of course!" Hercules said. "They're like best friends! They practically do everything together. They're practically sisters."

"Well, what about when they're alone?" Helen asked. "Is there any possible chance that maybe they were violent with each other?"

"Not that we're aware of." Shang said, furrowing his brow.

"Well if that were the case, is there anything specific that they could have physically fought with each other about that maybe that they didn't want either of you to know about?"

"Meg and Mulan would never fight with each other, let alone physically fight." Hercules said.

"Well let's say they did," Fiona began. "Something came up; Meg gets pissed off at Mulan and bashes her head into the locker, leaving a huge dent and blood behind. Then of course, Mulan fights back, smashes Meg's head into the mirror and it breaks into pieces leaving Meg's blood behind and unconscious for a few minutes. Mulan feels guilty, runs out of the change room without a second too soon. Then Meg wakes up a few minutes later, realizes that she's covered in her own blood and without a second thought, she races out of the change room without realizing that she forgot to lock up, and the two disappear for the rest of the night."

"That sounds like a solution." Kida said in deep thought. "But I doubt Meg and Mulan would throw punches and kicks to each other."

"I'm with Kida on this one." Hercules agreed.

"Me too." Shang piped in.

"Kida, would you happen to have a surveillance camera around here?" Helen asked hopefully.

Kida nodded quickly. "Yes, I do! We use it every day and night."

"Good, well we're going to need to have a look at it, between the times of 8:30pm and 11:45pm."

"Sure thing!"

"Hercules and Shang," Fiona began. "We're going to need to have a look in Meg and Mulan's gym bags, to find if there's any sort of evidence we missed."

Without hesitation, Hercules and Shang handed Detectives Helen and Fiona their girlfriends' gym bags, hoping to goodness that they will find anything suspicious that will lead them into finding their girlfriends once and for all.

"Are you sure this will work?" Kida asked.

Helen nodded. "Trust me, it's the only hope we have of locating Meg and Mulan."

* * *

**11:30am –15 Hours**

**Location: Back at the Apartment**

"Well…" Detective Shrek mused as he carefully examined the empty polished, ceramic shower, searching for any sign of unusual marks and clues. "The shower looks perfectly clean, no sign of anything unusual in here."

"Are you sure?" Phoebus asked worriedly. "I mean, I know that Esmeralda was definitely here last night."

"She could have been." Shrek said as he turned to stare at Phoebus and John. "But it doesn't look like the shower has been used all night."

"I still think she was here, though." Phoebus muttered. "She could have been here with Pocahontas too."

"Well besides you and Esmeralda, do either of you usually let anyone else use your shower? Or in this case have access to your room?"

Phoebus thought for a moment as John patiently waited for his friend's answer, as Phoebus nodded.

"Yes, but I would usually only let John, Hercules or Shang use my shower in case sometimes their water was out." He admitted. "I know Esmeralda would most of the times let the rest of the girls use the shower too in case they needed to use it in a hurry or something. And most of the times, they were the only ones who would have access to our apartment."

"But that's the case with all of us, sir." John cut in. "All of us usually had spare keys that we would give to each other so that we would have access to each other's rooms, usually just in case if a few of us were going away and we needed someone to make sure that our places were intact and that everything was fine."

"Okay, that sounds reasonable." Shrek said, nodding his head. "But is there any possible way that maybe Esmeralda let someone else use your shower, perhaps someone that you don't know?"

Phoebus and John exchanged confused glances with one another as they both furrowed their brows. Phoebus immediately shook his head as he frowned.

"No, that can't be possible." He said. "Esmeralda would never do something like that behind my back."

"Wait a minute, so are you suggesting that Esmeralda and Pocahontas had never come back from their yoga sessions?" John asked, furrowing his brow.

"I'm not necessarily suggesting that, per say." Shrek began. "I'm saying that maybe it's possible that there happened to be a third party here with Esmeralda and Pocahontas last night that neither of you both knows of."

"But if they were with someone else last night, the only other people we can think of are Meg and Mulan." John said.

"But John you have to remember, Hercules and Shang said that neither Esmeralda nor Pocahontas had seen Meg and Mulan for the rest of the night." Phoebus cut in.

John spoke. "Well, they're the only two people that I could think of."

"Did Esmeralda or Pocahontas have any other friends beside Meg and Mulan that they knew very well, or that they were close to?"

Phoebus shook his head. "Not that we know of."

"So you both are pretty familiar with their choice in friends?"

John nodded knowingly. "Yeah, and we're positive that the only other two people are Meg and Mulan. They're the only two that Esmeralda and Pocahontas are closest with."

"Well, did they have any other acquaintances that they sometimes spoke to once in a while?"

Phoebus nodded. "Yeah actually, there are these two other girls that Esmeralda and Pocahontas would sometimes talk to. Their names are Ariel and Rapunzel."

"But we all knew the both of them fairly well too, so they weren't complete strangers." John cut in.

"And how did Esmeralda and Pocahontas know them?"

"I remember that Ariel was in Esmeralda's Literature lecture, and that's how the two of them met." Phoebus explained. "I remember that Meg was in that lecture too."

"That's right." John complimented. "And Rapunzel was in Pocahontas's Humanities lecture, and Mulan was in that lecture too."

"So both these girls; Ariel and Rapunzel are pretty much acquaintances of all of your girlfriends."

Phoebus and John both nodded their heads.

"Yes, that's right."

"Okay, we're going to need these girls' address so we can ask them some questions."

"They're not going to be home, they all went on a camping trip with a bunch of their friends for the summer." John said.

"Did they say where exactly they're going?"

"No they didn't say."

"Well, it doesn't look like there's any sign of forced entry." Detective Bob called from outside the washroom as he made his way inside towards his partner. "But I did manage to find some unusual fingerprints on the window over there."

"Oh? Do you know who they're from?" Shrek asked, as Bob shook his head.

"Nothing yet, but I'm assuming that the fingerprints belong to Phoebus or Esmeralda, which neither of us have nothing to worry about. But I caught a swab of it. I'm going to take that to the crime lab just to get it tested."

"If the fingerprints do belong to me, which they do, it was only because I went over to close it shut after I found it left halfway open." Phoebus confessed.

"Your window was left open?" Bob asked, furrowing his brow. "Was it open all night?"

Phoebus shook his head. "No, because I remember it being closed last night when John and I left, and this was after Esmeralda and Pocahontas had left to go to their Yoga session last night."

"Well if we notice anything unusual come up, we'll be sure to give you a heads up." Shrek said. "But, while you gentlemen were talking briefly a few moments ago, I did notice that were bits of dried blood on the floor in your bathroom."

Upon hearing that cynical word, Phoebus immediately felt sick to his stomach as fear and anxiety began to rise inside of his system.

"Y-yeah we…we kind of discovered that too earlier this morning." He murmured as John lowered his head down in sorrow and worry.

"And we also discovered some bits of blood on the wall behind you." Bob said as he pointed towards the polished ceramic wall that stood behind Phoebus and John as they both instantly whirled around, their jaws dropping to the ground as they witnessed that same red liquid that slithered down the wall.

"B-but….." John stuttered. "But….how?"

"We….we never noticed that before." Phoebus stammered as he turned around to face the detectives standing behind him.

"That was the first thing we noticed when we came in here." Bob responded.

"Will we be able to find out where this blood came from?" John asked hopefully.

Bob nodded. "Yes, we took a few swabs of each of them and we will get them down to the crime lab as soon as possible to be tested for any traces of DNA."

"But in the meantime, we're still going to need the address of both of those girls." Shrek instructed as the two young men gulped slowly and nodded their heads.

"Yes sir."

* * *

**5:30pm – 21 Hours**

**Location: The Bar**

It's already been twenty-one hours and still, there was absolutely no sign of Meg, Esmeralda, Mulan or Pocahontas, which had their boyfriends worrying and fearing for their lives at this very moment. Not wanting to sit around their apartment pacing back and forth, the four of them decided that maybe going out a for a little drink of bear would calm them down. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work as well as they thought it would.

"When are they going to call us?" Hercules asked frantically as he fidgeted in his seat, shaking his leg as he clenched his fists. "I can't take this endless waiting any longer!"

"Hercules, man you have to try and relax." Phoebus firmly instructed his friend, even deep down he was freaking out just as much as Hercules was.

"Phoebus, he's right!" Shang cut in, his teeth clenched as he slammed fist on the hardwood table, groaning in frustration and worry. "How long until we find out about this?"

"I don't know, man!" John groaned. "I'm about to lose my mind right now."

"Guys, I know we're all freaked out right now, but yelling, fidgeting and slamming our fists into the table are not going to help us right now." Phoebus said firmly.

"But dude! Our girlfriends are still missing out there and neither of us have absolutely _no _idea where they are right now!" Hercules yelled.

"Herc-"

"But he's right now!" Shang wailed. "It's now 5:30pm, meaning that it's been at least twenty-one hours since either of us has last seen or heard from them!"

Phoebus studied his friends carefully, lifting up one eyebrow with a crazed look on his face as he let out of a loud and frustrated groan, completely not able to handle being the brave one out of the four them.

"You're right!" He muttered through clenched teeth, squeezing his eyes close shut while balling up his fist tightly. "I can't take any more of this waiting around thing; this is agony!"

Out of nowhere, the sound of a loud but soft chime from the entrance door was heard as the sound rung throughout the entire bar, which was practically empty at the moment. The chime signalled that a new customer had just arrived. To the four young men's surprise, they all turned as they set their gazes on that same familiar petite golden blonde haired girl along with that same familiar bright redhead that was barrelling behind her. As the guys came in contact with these two frantic girls, it was then when they automatically recognized the girls to be Rapunzel and Ariel, as they both bolted inside and rushed towards them, the two of them sounding as if they were out of breath.

"Thank goodness we found you guys!" Rapunzel huffed with a worried look plastered all over her face.

"Oh my gosh, we heard the news!" Ariel literally cried. "The police told us everything! Is it true that Meg, Mulan, Esmeralda and Pocahontas are all missing?"

John heaved a deep sigh and spoke. "Yes, it's true."

"Wait, you guys spoke with cops?" Shang asked in shock. "What made you do that?"

"The cops just came to us," Rapunzel explained. "We were just in the middle of leaving for our camping trip and the next thing you know, we hear a knock on our door and in came police."

"What did they talk to you about?" Hercules asked.

"They just asked if either of us had heard from the girls at all today or yesterday." Ariel started. "And we said no that we haven't seen them at all since a few days ago."

"So wait," Phoebus piped in. "Why didn't you guys go on your camping trip?"

Rapunzel spoke. "After being questioned by the cops about how our friends mysteriously disappeared, we couldn't just leave you guys behind knowing that you're all in some sort of trauma. So we decided to stay behind."

"Yeah and if anything, we want to help find them too." Ariel offered.

"That's awfully thoughtful of you both." Phoebus murmured. "Unfortunately, we're still waiting to hear back from the cops with any results."

Ariel frowned. "Results? What results?"

"Is it that bad?" Rapunzel asked.

Before Phoebus or John could get another word in, it was once again when the sound of the soothing chime dinged which meant that yet another customer was just stepping through the door. As the group turned their heads in annoyance towards where the sound had come from, relief and hope immediately washed over their faces as they recognized those two familiar redheads as Detective Helen and Detective Fiona as they both stepped inside, worry filling in both of their eyes as they searched for any sign of the young men they had spoken to earlier.

"Detectives!" Hercules shouted with hope as he was the first one to jump from the table, with Shang being the second as the rest of the group followed behind and ran towards the female detectives.

"Oh thank goodness we found you all." Detective Helen said in relief.

"Were you able to find anything?" Shang asked urgently, as Detective Helen and Detective Fiona both exchanged worried glances with one another and slowly nodded.

"We did." Detective Fiona confessed. "But we must warn you all; this information is not very pretty."

Upon hearing this, immediately the group began to pale, fear and anxiety rising within their systems as Ariel and Rapunzel both gasped subtly in unison. Phoebus was the first to speak.

"How bad would this be…..exactly?"

Fiona sighed deeply, sucking in a deep breath and opening her mouth to speak. "Judging by the evidence we found earlier today and based on the results that were given, there's a very high possibility that….."

"That….what?" John asked anxiously, with a nervous Fiona as she closed her mouth shut in a thin line, no longer able to bring herself to finish her statement, and that's when Helen decided to come in, as much as she did not want to be put in this position to deliver bad news.

Helen heaved a deep sigh and spoke. "Your girlfriends have been abducted."

* * *

**Dun, Dun, DUN! Things are really starting to get tensed here aren't they? So…what did you guys think? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Again, I truly apologize for the long delay! I hate having make you guys wait so long for a new update! Ugh! But it turns out that Mystery stories are definitely not as easy as thought to work with…but I shouldn't be using that as an excuse now, should I? Haha anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, if you didn't then that's cool too. Personally, I don't really think that this was my best chapter but still, I would love hear what you guys have to say about this. But I must warn you all, throughout the future chapters, things will get pretty gruesome and ugly so prepare yourselves! I promise you all there will be plenty more ahead! Last but not least, I want to give a warm and big shout out to my amazing readers and reviewers: Purplepox63010, TrinaAngel, FloralrmaTylee, bs13, DisneyChick2012, to my anonymous Guest reviewers (Guest, Gvc and WinxBigFan135) and to my very best and close friend, Suzerenma! You guys are amazing! I love you all! Shout out to DisneyChick2012 for submitting her book cover! Thank you so much for that darlin'! Anyways as always, you guys know the drill! Show some love and R&R! Thank you my lovely readers! Mwah!***

_**Demi Brackensick**_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Hearing those last words that had escaped from the redhead's mouth, fear and anxiety began to rise in every single one of their bodies. Hercules, Phoebus, Shang, John, Rapunzel and Ariel all stood with their jaws hanging wide open, their faces turning pale white as if they had just witnessed a ghost that threatened to loom over them. Shaking her head slowly in shame, Detective Fiona placed a hand to her mouth as she turned away from the group of fearful young adults that stood before her, not able to bear facing them with the news that they had just received. After a few minutes of shocking silence that chilled their spines to the bone, Phoebus was the first to break it.

"H-how….." He began, as he shut his eyes and continued speaking. "How…is that possible?"

Heaving a deep sigh, Detective Helen opened her mouth to speak. "Based on all of the evidence that we've discovered during our investigation and….the footage….someone has taken your girlfriends…and for all we know….that person could be holding them as hostages."

"Wait…" John cut in with a worried expression. "What footage are you talking about?"

"The footage we saw on the surveillance camera at the Silicon Valley." Helen confessed quietly.

Upon hearing this, immediately Shang and Hercules both perked up as their faces dropped. Fear bubbling inside of their bellies as they felt their heart rate beginning to dangerously increase.

"S-silicon Valley?" Shang said, clenching his fists. "Y-you're…..kidding right?"

Detective Helen sadly shook her head, complying that this was not at all a joke.

"S-so….y-you're saying that…e-everything is shown….o-on…." Hercules stuttered, not able to complete his question as Helen sadly nodded.

"Oh my gosh." Rapunzel whispered in fright, grasping tightly onto Phoebus's arm as he gently wrapped an arm around her in comfort and fear.

"We have to find them!" Hercules piped in, squeezing his eyes closed tightly as he balled up his fists. Witnessing how much emotional pain her friend was in at the moment, Ariel's response was to only hug him in comfort, with Hercules responding to her attempt at support by placing an arm around her tightly.

"Detectives," John began. "Is there any way we can discuss this somewhere in private? We're going to need more of an explanation on all of this."

"Yes, but you'll all have to come along with Fiona and me back down to the police station." Helen spoke. "That way, you can all get a better grasp on what's happening."

"We'll follow you down there." Shang responded eagerly.

"But as long as our friends, Ariel and Rapunzel," Phoebus motioned to the two young girls standing alongside them. "Are able to come with us too."

"That won't be a problem." Detective Fiona piped in, nearly surprising everyone else. "It's the only way we can keep these girls safe as well."

Wasting no time, the six young adults nodded their heads as they quickly followed the two women out of the bar, made their way to their cars and were now on their way down to the police station. However, little did they know that a mysterious figure had been keeping tabs on each of them through the window of his black van and watched carefully as the three cars disappeared in the dim, sunlit evening. Once it was clear that they were completely out of site, a smug grin formed on his face as he chuckled darkly, slowly turning his head to focus his gaze on the four unconscious bodies that were sprawled out in the back of his trunk as he stepped his foot on the gas and sped off in the opposite direction.

* * *

**6:30pm – 22 Hours**

**Location: San Jose Police Station**

The drive down to the San Jose police station took about an hour drive, seeing as the location of the station was around the downtown area of San Jose. But thankfully, everyone was able to make it there safely in the nick of time. The detectives pulled up in their usual parking space, with Phoebus, John and Rapunzel lumped together in one car while Hercules, Shang and Ariel on the other hand were lumped together in another. None of them wasted any time as they all hurried out of their cars and raced their way inside the station, all squeezing together inside the elevator for a quick ride until they finally made it the "8th" floor as they all piled out in a blur, speed walking down the narrow hallway and rounding the corner with Helen and Fiona leading the way while the rest followed closely behind on their heels and reaching their destination where detectives Bob, and Shrek and a few others patiently waited.

"You found them." Bob said in a hopeful tone, abandoning his crowded desk of different papers that were sprawled out.

"Detectives Helen and Fiona told us about what happened!" Phoebus said while clutching onto Rapunzel closely. "I-is it…..true? T-that our girlfriends have been…..k-kidnapped?"

The detectives all exchanged nervous and remorseful glances with one another, briefly shifting their gazes on the fearful young adults standing before them, as they all heaved deep sighs in unison and nodded their heads.

"Yes," Shrek confessed. "I'm afraid it is…."

"Who took them?" Hercules demanded through clenched teeth, while clutching tightly onto Ariel at the same time.

"Please!" John begged. "You need to give us some answers."

"And what about the blood you found back at the Silicon Valley?" Shang asked frantically. "Did they say where the blood came from?"

Helen heaved a deep sigh and opened her mouth to speak. "Okay now guys, we understand that you are all frantic and traumatized about this situation, but we're going to need all of you to please take a deep breath, and try to calm down."

"Detective!" Shang nearly shouted. "With all due respect, but our girlfriends have been _kidnapped_! How do you expect us to calm down when we're all about to lose our minds?"

"Shang!" John said sternly, trying to calm his friend down. "Now's not the time to be yelling."

"But John-!"

"Shang, dude, he's right." Phoebus piped in. "Yelling and shouting is only going to make the situation worse than it already is."

"He's right, Shang." Detective Fiona said in comforting tone. "We know how tough this is for you, but we're going to need you to stay focused, so we can try our best to get to the bottom of this."

Shang heaved a heavy sigh. "Fine." He mumbled under his breath.

"Detectives," Hercules began. "About….the blood….y-you found…..what did the results say?"

Exchanging nervous glances with another, Detective Helen heaved a deep sigh as she tried to collect herself, before opening her mouth to speak, her eyes staring into each and every one of the frantic, young adults' eyes that stood before her.

"The traces of blood that I found on the locker door," She began. "DNA says that it belonged to Meg."

Hercules face immediately paled as Ariel gasped in fright. "W-what?"

"W-what about the blood….that was found….on the shattered mirror pieces?" Shang asked, forcing a big blob of saliva down his throat as his hands began to sweat excessively.

"DNA says the blood from the shattered mirror pieces came from Mulan." Detective Fiona murmured.

"B-but….." Shang gaped, unable to get the words out his mouth.

"How did this happen?" Phoebus asked, heart thumping violently inside of his chest.

"We found the footage on the surveillance cameras from the Silicon Valley." Shrek confirmed.

"F-footage?" Shang stuttered.

"From what we've witnessed on the footage, there was some sort of mysterious figure that was hiding out in the change room," Helen confessed.

"Y-you mean…this was person was hiding out in the _women's _change room?" Rapunzel asked in terror.

"So wait a second here," John piped in. "A-are you trying to say that….a _woman _has taken kidnapped our girlfriends?"

"Not from what we've seen on the footage." Fiona said.

"And the fingerprints that we found on your window Phoebus," Bob began. "One was definitely yours, but the other one definitely belonged to Esmeralda. But we've also found another, unusual set of fingerprints that belonged to neither of you."

Phoebus's face paled at the sound of this. "S-so….what exactly are you saying?"

"I'm saying that the third set of fingerprints belonged to someone else; an unknown male."

"What?" Ariel gasped. "But what does that mean? That Esmeralda was…..possibly cheating?"

"No!" Phoebus said angrily, shaking his head. "No! No, that can't be right! Esmeralda would never let anyone else in our room, let alone an unknown male that I don't know about!"

"I'm not quite following this." John said, sounding confused and lost.

"Hold on, let me finish," Bob continued. "DNA says that this unknown male's fingerprints that we found on Phoebus's window, matches the ones that Helen and Fiona had found in the women's change room in one of the washroom stalls back at the Silicon Valley."

"What?" Hercules nearly wailed. "You mean to tell us that some sicko was spying on our girlfriend's while they were in the washroom changing?"

"Based on what we've found with the results and on the footage," Fiona began. "He was hiding in one of the stalls while spying on Meg and Mulan."

"But what else did you see on the footage?" Shang asked.

Helen sighed deeply, adjusting her weight on the edge of a nearby table with her arms folded across her chest as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Mulan had left the change rooms, leaving Meg behind for whatever reason," Helen began, only to be interrupted by Shang.

"But why would she do that? Did they really get into some sort of fight?"

"No," Helen confirmed. "Things between them seemed perfectly fine. But what we saw on the footage while Meg was alone, oddly enough, we witnessed the lights strangely beginning to flicker and eventually, they shut off for a brief moment and while she went to look around for anything suspicious, that's when we noticed that a dark figure had emerged from the washroom stall and followed behind her, almost as if he was creeping up on her. And then when the lights turned back on, Meg was just about ready to pack up and then the next thing we know, we see that same figure standing behind her and so he grabbed her from behind. Meg seemed to put up quite a fight and that's when he bashed her head into the locker door, leaving bits of her blood behind. He threw her to the ground, unconscious, threw her into a bag, tied up her ankles and ran off with her."

Hercules immediately felt his stomach churn inside of his belly, feeling sick to his stomach as Ariel hugged him tighter.

"And what about Mulan?" Shang said.

"That's when he came back and hid inside the washroom stall again," Detective Fiona piped in. "When we saw that Mulan had come back looking for Meg. Once she got to that same washroom stall, he burst out and literally strangled her but she punched him and tried to get away, but he was too quick and he grabbed her from behind and that's when he smashed the side of her head into the glass mirror, which left bits of her blood behind on the shattered pieces. She fell unconscious and he threw her to the ground, shoved her body inside of a bag, tied up her ankles and ran off."

At this point, Shang felt as a hurricane was immediately beginning to twist up his insides, feeling as his breath was cut short as he tore his gaze away from everyone, unable to look at anyone right now.

"And like we said earlier," Shrek began. "Based on the fingerprints that match from Phoebus's window and from the washroom stalls at the Silicon Valley, we believe that this man has taken Esmeralda and Pocahontas as well."

"And based on the traces of blood we found in your bathroom," Bob began. "The blood on the ground definitely came from Esmeralda."

Now it was Phoebus's turn to feel the wind suddenly knocked out of him, unable to maintain his normal breathing, while Rapunzel tried to comfort him.

"But why take our girlfriends?" Shang growled. "Why them? What could he possibly want with them?"

"That's a mystery that we still have yet to solve." Helen said sadly.

"Why not just let us watch the tape?" John demanded. "And see it for ourselves."

"Because you all are going through so much trauma at the moment," Helen began. "Forcing you all to watch the footage would have made things worse for all of you than it already is."

"Do you know who this man is?" Phoebus demanded through clenched teeth, clutching onto Rapunzel closer.

Bob heaved a deep sigh. "Unfortunately, we do not know who this man is."

"But we promise that we will do everything in our power to catch this man and get your girlfriends back to you, safe and sound." Fiona promised calmly.

"And what if you can't keep that promise?" Hercules said in monotone through clenched teeth, his eyes finding Fiona's.

"You'll just have to trust us."

* * *

**8:30pm – 24 Hours – 1 Day**

**Location: The Apartment**

Twenty-four hours came in the blink of an eye. It's been exactly one day since Esmeralda, Meg, Pocahontas and Mulan have last been seen since their abduction. The police and detectives have yet to get on their case and track this suspicious person down and find their girlfriends. With any luck, all the gang hoped was that their girlfriends were still alive. Currently at the moment, everyone had driven back to the apartment; where they remained Hercules's room; 4B while John and Shang paced and back and forth in opposite directions. Rapunzel was attempting to comfort Phoebus in a friendly manner, while Ariel did the same with Hercules. The room was filled with silence that loomed amongst them, until Hercules was the first to break it.

"We have to find this man!" He muttered through clenched teeth, his arm wrapped around Ariel's waist as she patted his shoulder in comfort.

"But Herc, the detectives said that they will try to find him and get Meg, Esmeralda, Mulan and Pocahontas back." She said soothingly.

"Ariel, I can't just sit here patiently and rely on the detectives to find them!" Hercules growled angrily. "Meg's been taken by a man that we don't know of and now he's holding her hostage! I have to find her! She needs me!"

"But Herc-"Ariel began.

"Ariel, he's right!" Shang cut in as he immediately stopped dead in his tracks and glowered. "We can't just sit here and wait! We have to do something to find them!"

"You guys, it's way too dangerous for any of you to handle this situation on your own!" Rapunzel chimed in. "You shouldn't have to do this alone! That's the police and the detectives' job to find them!"

"But Rapunzel they're right!" John stopped in his tracks and pressed his gaze to hers. "I'm not about to casually sit back and wait to hear back from the detectives every time they find something that we need to hear! Pocahontas is out there with a strange man that's taken her to God knows where!"

"You guys are crazy!" Ariel nearly shouted angrily. "Look, I know you guys are worried out of your minds, but it's too dangerous!"

"How do you know if this man isn't some sort of psychopath that will murder you the minute you step into his territory?" Rapunzel demanded.

"So you're saying that if he is a killer, that we should just sit back and let him murder our girlfriends and not do anything about it ourselves?" Hercules shouted.

"Okay, okay, you guys, please just try and calm down-" Ariel tried to beg.

"Ariel, we can't calm down!" John wailed. "Our girlfriends are missing! It's already been twenty-four hours!"

"Guys!" Phoebus roared, his arm wrapped around Rapunzel's shoulders as she comforted him. "We have to calm down! Shouting and yelling at one another is not going to help!"

Immediately, the room fell silent. Each and every one of them obeying Phoebus's orders, keeping their mouths sealed shut while at the same time, trying to keep calm and to catch their breaths.

"What are we going to do, man?" John asked. "I mean, I can't just sit here and wait any longer."

"I'm definitely with John on this one." Hercules chimed in.

"So am I." Shang agreed.

"You guys-" Rapunzel began, before she was interrupted by Phoebus.

"I have to agree with you guys." He murmured. "We can't just sit around and wait; we need to do something."

"But Phoebus-"

"Rapunzel, listen," Shang started. "Our girlfriends are counting on us to go and save them. A strange man has taken them to God knows where and for all we know, he's holding them as hostages. They need us."

"Shang," Ariel began softly. "What Rapunzel and I trying to say is that, you all can't do this by yourselves. I mean, it's bad enough that Mulan and the rest of them are all missing. We can't afford to let you guys go out there and then end up missing as well; or end up dead."

"Ariel, we're strong enough to defend ourselves." John said reassuringly. "We're not going to end up dead."

"And how do you know that, John?" Ariel demanded. "You don't know that!"

"Ariel, you're just going to have to trust us." Hercules said in a calm tone.

"Hercules, there is no way Ariel and I will let you all of you go out and do this alone!" Rapunzel piped in. "We just can't let that happen!"

As the arguing started up again for the second time, Phoebus did his best to tune out the sounds of yelling and shouting beginning to erupt, the loud voices of his friends pounding against his eardrums. He heaved a deep sigh and lowered his head as he felt a sudden headache edging on. In reality, he was tired; everyone else was tired and exhausted as well. He was tired from worrying and panicking. He worried for the safety of his beloved girlfriend, the one woman aside from the women in his family who he cared about so much. The fact that his Esmeralda had been taken from him and was God knows where only made his inside churn. All he and the rest of the guys prayed to God for was that their girlfriends were still alive.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to sit around and wait." John spoke. "I'm going to find Pocahontas myself if I have to."

"But John-"

"I don't want to hear it!" He snapped angrily as marched straight for the door. "I'm going to find her, and no one is going to stop me!"

Everyone watched intently as John swung open the door and pushed himself through as he slammed it shut with such force that the entire room nearly shook; as if a giant earthquake had just struck. It was silent at first, until Shang decided to speak up.

"We can't let him do this alone." He said. "I'm going with him."

"Shang, you can't!" Ariel replied in anger.

"Ariel, I don't care!" He snapped, glaring in her direction. "John has been my close friend since we were in preschool and there is no way I'm letting him do this on his own! If it means going out there with him and finding Mulan, then I'll be more than willing to take that risk!"

Before anyone had a chance to speak up or get another word in, Shang was out in the blink of an eye, slamming the door shut with less force than John had done a few seconds earlier. Meaning, that this only left Phoebus, Rapunzel, Ariel and Hercules as they all sighed heavily in unison. Ariel shifted her body she that she was directly facing Hercules, her big blue eyes pleading as they searched his, opening her mouth to speak.

"Please tell me you're not considering going along with them." She begged softly.

Hercules heaved a deep sigh and spoke. "I have to. If it means finding Meg, than I'm going."

"What? Herc, no! You can't-"

"He's right, Ariel." Phoebus murmured. "If Herc is considering this, then I'm going to do this with him."

"But Phoebus-" Rapunzel began.

"Guys," Phoebus cut in. "You have to understand that we're doing this for our girlfriends' safety."

"But that's the police and the detectives' jobs to-"

"It doesn't matter if it's their jobs or not! Esmeralda and the girls are out there and probably freaked out of their minds right about now! They're all counting on us to find them and bring them home to where they belong!"

"But-"

"If you both are not going to help and support us," Hercules began. "Then there's no point for you two even being here."

Ariel and Rapunzel gaped at Hercules sudden reaction, their expressions confused and shocked as they kept their big eyes trained on him.

"He's right." Phoebus agreed. "It's either both of you help and supports us or just leaves and let us handle this on our own."

Ariel and Rapunzel kept quiet, their mouths sealed shut, unable to argue any further. It wasn't long until Ariel huffed in anger as she wiggled herself out of Hercules's arm and made for the door, with Rapunzel throwing Phoebus's arm off her shoulder and following close behind Ariel and wit that, the two stormed their way out and slammed the door behind them. Leaving Hercules and Phoebus staring apologetically at the door, with Hercules burying his head in his hands while Phoebus pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb.

"I think we were a bit too hard on them." He muttered, feeling a pang of guilt.

Hercules sighed and lifted his head from his hands. "I know, but all of this is just so much to digest…..I just…..I can't…."

"Herc, don't beat yourself up over this." Phoebus said reassuringly. "This is extremely tough on all of us. I mean, we're still pretty traumatized with what's happening."

"You're right." Hercules agreed. "But, we have to come up with some sort of plan to get our girlfriends' back."

"We're going to get them back, even if we have to do it through blood, sweat and tears."

"It's a life or death situation." Hercules murmured. "We have to tell Shang and John that we're in."

"We're getting them back, even if we have to do it alone."

* * *

**10:30pm – 26 Hours**

**Location: Abandoned Warehouse**

It was dark. Extremely dark. Only the sounds of the soft wind hollowing in the background could be heard. The sounds of crickets rubbing their legs together chimed in unison. Absolutely no one knew could find this specific place, where it was located remained a complete mystery. And it always will.

Esmeralda's emerald eyes slowly began to flutter open, her vision was slightly blurred as she was falling in and out of consciousness. In her mind, she had absolutely no idea where she was at the moment, or why she was feeling so exhausted, her body barely able to move. Blinking her eyes rapidly as she felt her consciousness beginning to kick in, she felt as she sprawled out on a hard, dusty surface, her breathing was beginning to quicken. Her eyes were now wide open as she jolted up from the ground, realizing that the surface was concrete as she gasped heavily, heart pounding and wrenching inside of her chest.

It was dark all around her, except for the small window that was high up in the corner where the moonlit night spilled inside through the stain glass. Her head was throbbing, feeling as though she had been plunged in the head, completely unaware of the bitter taste of blood that danced on her taste buds at the corner of her mouth. Esmeralda tried her hardest to remain calm, crawling around the area where she had no idea where she was at the moment. She certainly did not remember leaving her apartment to come to this strange and creepy place.

Esmeralda felt as the goose bumps began to rise on her arms as well as the hairs that began to stick up, wrapping her arms around herself, realizing that she still remained in her yoga pants and her white, fitted tank top and flip flops. The air around her was chilly, as she shivered violently and continued crawling through what seemed like a cellar, in search of a familiar face or a voice.

"Where am I?" She muttered worriedly to herself. "Meg? Mulan? Poca?"

Suddenly, the sound of groaning and whimpering forced her to come to a halt, whirling around behind her in search of where the sound was coming from. Her head darted from side to side, desperately searching for the sound as it grew slightly louder as she crawled towards it. Squinting her eyes as they tried to adjust to a strange figure that was sprawled out in front of her, it was then when Esmeralda immediately recognized that the groan was coming from Meg, witnessing her best friend's unconscious form extended before her. Esmeralda wasted no time as she hurriedly slid towards Meg and gently began shaking her.

"Meg!" She whispered frantically. "Meg! Honey, wake up! Please, wake up!"

Esmeralda gently flipped Meg onto her back; rubbing the side of her cheek with the back of her hand comfortingly as Meg's violet eyes began to flutter open, easing in and out of consciousness. Esmeralda frowned as she noticed a bloody, bruise at the corner of Meg's head. Coughing, relief washed over Esmeralda as Meg's eyes were now fully opened and alert, staring wide eyed at her friend huddling over her as she quickly jolted up, which she regretted almost instantly as she moaned in pain and clutched onto her now aching head, realizing that she still remained in her workout clothing; her lulu lemon knee length tights and her tight, fitted purple tank top and running shoes.

"Esme?" Meg croaked. "W-where…..where are we?"

"I-I don't know!" Esmeralda whispered in shaky tone. "I mean….I-I wake up and then…somehow we ended up…in t-this place…."

Meg surveyed the cellar with wide and frantic eyes, throwing herself into her best friend's tight embrace as their eyes searched around the darkness the surrounded them, unable to figure out where they were at the moment.

"W-where's Mulan and Poca?" Meg questioned in a panicky tone.

Esmeralda squinted her eyes and suddenly distinguished not one, but two unconscious figures that were sprawled out before her, comprehending that those two figures belonged to none other than Mulan and Pocahontas, who seemed to be knocked out cold. Esmeralda and Meg wasted no time as they both lagged towards to their two close friends in attempt to awaken them from their unconscious slumbers. Esmeralda huddled over Mulan while Meg tended to Pocahontas.

"Mulan!" Esmeralda whispered, gently shaking her friend. "Please wake up! Mulan, please wake up, honey!"

Choking down some air and coughing it out, Mulan suddenly jolted awake. She gasped in pain and fright as she clutched her head from the brutal pounding she felt inside, cringing as she felt some sort of slimy liquid at the side of her head. Pulling her hand away, she gasped as she witnessed the dark, red liquid that seeped down her fingers, realizing that she still remained in her gym clothing; her tight, fitted baby blue tank top with her lulu lemon shorts and sneakers.

"Esme?" She gasped in fright. "W-what happened? W-where are we?"

"I wish I knew." Esmeralda whispered back as she embraced Mulan in a comforting hug.

"Poca?" Meg hissed softly, stroking her friend's silky black hair out of her face. "Wake up! Please wake up!"

Groaning softly, Pocahontas's brown eyes flickered as they were now wide open in fright. She gasped as she attempted to jolt herself up off the ground, but stopped short as she scrunched up her face in pain, feeling as her ribs had just been ripped out of her flesh, gently clutching onto her side in agony. Pocahontas realized that she was still in her yoga pants with her beige, fitted tank top and flip flops. Meg did nothing but comfort her friend, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and holding her close.

"Meg?" Pocahontas croaked. "I-is that you?"

Meg nodded. "I-it's okay, I'm here."

Pocahontas surveyed her surroundings, realizing that this place did not look like her home at all.

"W-what is this place?" She questioned. "Where are Esme and Mulan?"

"We're right here, Poca!" Esmeralda whispered in relief as the four friends huddled together.

"Where are we?" Mulan asked again in shaky tone. "Where are Shang, Hercules, John and Phoebus?"

"I-I don't know!" Meg replied in a panicked tone. "But we have to get out of here!"

"B-but how are we going to do that?" Pocahontas whimpered. "I-it doesn't look like there's any….doors around here."

"Guys, w-we all just have to stay calm, a-and try to find a way out of here." Esmeralda instructed, gazing at the window that loomed above them. "We can try to jump through that window up there."

The three girls shot their heads up in the direction where the window stood above them, worry and fear plastered all over their faces, before Mulan broke the silence.

"B-but…..but how…..-"

Heavy footsteps stomping on the concrete ground silenced the four young women as they all whipped their heads around in the direction towards the mysterious sound. As the footsteps grew closer and closer, wondering and fearing for their lives just exactly _who _the sounds of the footsteps belonged to, before either of them had a chance to blink, the sound of a large door that was somehow buried in the dusty and dirty particles, squeaked opened. The girls' faces paled, their hearts sinking deep down to the pit of their stomachs as a large, tall and dark figure stepped in slowly and stood before them, looming over the four young women that shook before him; each of them swallowing down big blobs of saliva as this mysterious figure's heavy breathing sent extreme chills up their spines.

Being the braver one, Esmeralda gulped slowly, clutching Mulan closer towards her while Meg and Pocahontas cowered together, opening her mouth to speak.

"W-who….." She began. "W-who…a-are you…?"

The figure inched closer, leaning slightly over the four terrified women as a dark chuckle escaped passed his lips. Revealing his slightly disfigured face with numerous scars covering his flesh, his left eye half open and his teeth covered in yellow splotches. He leaned in closer, and opened his mouth to speak.

"Your worst nightmare…."

* * *

**Dun….dun….DUN! Cheesy ending, I know! That's probably the most common suspense line that happens to be in every single movie, or story. Haha! Anyways, once again, I apologize for my extremely long delay folks! I apologize if this chapter seemed a bit short, but that's only because I'm still trying to build up the suspense and climax gradually, so I don't want to give away too much in one chapter just yet. There will plenty more ahead for that in later chapters. I understand that I did leave out some unanswered questions and situations, but like I said, I will be saving those for the future chapters. So please, bear with me guys! Haha! Anyways, I think I mentioned earlier that throughout the story, things will get a little bit gruesome and brutal so just be prepared for some slightly mature themes. Just a warning my lovely readers because the last thing I want is for any of you to fear for your lives and never read this again! No, that is absolutely not my intention at all. If that were the case, I would have rated this story as M. But anyways, enough of my rambling and let's get on with the shout outs! First off, a big warm shout out to my loyal readers/reviewers FloraIrmaTylee, bs13 (by the way, check out their stories! They're freaking amazing!) DisneyChick2012, a few anonymous reviewers and to my very best friend, Suzerenma! Thank you so much guys! You guys are so awesome and amazing and I would not be here if it wasn't for you guys' support! I love you all bunches! Now you know the drill guys, show your love and R&R! Thanks guys! More to come very soon! Mwah!***


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

**April 16****th**** – 8:30am – 36 Hours**

Morning had come before anyone had a chance to blink their eyes open; while some were unprepared for another busy day on their schedule; at least, the ones who were fortunate enough to have the energy to enjoy another pleasing day. Hercules's eyelids fluttered open as they came in contact with the bright sunlight that viciously blinded them for a short, temporary second. He groaned, rubbed his eyes and slowly lifted his body from wherever it was that he had fallen asleep; completely forgetting that he had dosed off at the foot of his bed.

Stretching out his muscles and bones and was now fully alert, Hercules's eyes landed on the couch where Phoebus once sat in front of him; furrowing his brow in confusion as the couch now remained completely empty. He mentally scolded and cursed himself for even allowing himself to just collapse when he knew darn well that his girlfriend was still out there and she desperately needed him; along with his other friends who desperately needed him as well. Out of the blue, it was then when a sudden sound caught Hercules's attention as he narrowed his eyes and carefully scanned his surroundings.

Sooner or later, he was able to calm down as he realized the sounds of soft murmuring was coming from none other than Phoebus as he slowly paced back and forth on the other side of the room, his blonde hair slightly messy as it stuck up in different directions while dark circles coated his eyes from lack of sleep; his phone glued to his ear as he muttered into his cellular device, sounding somewhat nervous and concerned all at the same time for whatever reason, while Hercules on the other hand couldn't help but wonder curiously as to who it was that his friend seemed to be having a deep conversation with. Just by watching his friend pacing nervously back and forth, Hercules was greatly hoping that it was the detectives that were on the other line of Phoebus's phone; hoping that they had some more information. It wasn't long until Phoebus came to a slow stop, murmured something into the receiver, snapped his phone shut as he clutched the device tightly in his grip; heaving a heavy and deep sighs as a troublesome look masked his face.

"Dude, what's up?" Hercules asked hopefully. "Was that the detectives? Do they have a possible lead? Did they find anything else?"

Phoebus sighed and shook his head. "No….I wasn't speaking with the detectives. I was…..on the phone with my parents."

Hercules furrowed his brow. "Your parents? What for? Did you tell them what's happening?"

"They know what's happening." Phoebus said; his voice dangerously low. "It's all over the news."

Hercules's face immediately paled as he felt his stomach twist and turn within his system; gulping down the blob of saliva that rose its way up.

"The news?" He choked. "Y-you…..you mean…."

Phoebus carefully lifted his gaze to focus on his friend; his body going stiff as he slowly nodded his head; phone still clutched in his now tight grip as his palms began to sweat.

"Channel 9."

Without wasting any time, Hercules rapidly jumped off the bed and raced towards the television as his shaky fingers fumbled with the buttons of the electronic machine standing before him. Feeling relieved as he finally managed to get the television turned on once and for all, the two young men took a step back; panic filling their insides, eyes widened in horror and their jaws dropped open as if they had they had just witnessed a brutal murder happening right in front of them. But to them, it was far worse than that. No, it wasn't a murder. It couldn't be. Instead, there they watched as the innocent faces of their girlfriends popped up on the screen; displaying their age, their gender and their race. All of their bright, smiling pictures lined up in a row of a four with the bright, bold letters MISSING blinking right through the screen.

"It has come to our attention, that these four young women have been reported as missing." A dark-haired woman announced, looking to be somewhere in her mid-twenties. "Detectives say that these women were all last seen at 8:30pm on April 14th. No one is sure how and where they have suddenly disappeared to but Police are doing their best to search for these women and hopefully bring them back safe and sound."

Click

Hercules promptly clicked the television off; uncomfortable silence loomed amongst the two as they stared at the now black screen that gazed back at them. Phoebus was certain that he could hear his own heart rate about to burst, as well as Hercules's. This couldn't be. It was a nightmare that each and every one of them had to live in the moment. Phoebus turned to gaze at his friend; his brown eyes meeting his distraught ones.

"This can't be happening." He spoke slowly; clutching his phone to his side. "This is all…..just too much."

"You're telling me?" Hercules agreed. "Dude I-I….I can't…."

"Herc." Phoebus patted his shoulder gently. "We will find them. I promise you."

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Hercules and Phoebus both winced at the sound of the loud bang that bounced off the walls of Hercules's apartment; completely unaware that they were expecting company. Furrowing his brow, Hercules walked towards the door and answered as quickly as possible and in came a frantic John – who happened to be carrying not one but two items in his hands - and a terrified Shang as the two literally burst through the door; not bothering to remember any greetings.

"Have you guys seen the news?" John literally wailed. "It's everywhere!"

"Yea, we just finished watching it." Phoebus answered carefully.

"Man, this is all too much for me!" Shang interjected; digging his fingers through his scalp. "We need to find them, and fast!"

"I'm with Shang on this one!" Hercules agreed quickly. "I can't sit around and wait any longer. The sooner we go out to find them, the better-"

"Guys!" Phoebus instructed. "You both need to just calm down."

"Phoebus, they're right!" John cut in. "Our girlfriends are all over the news! Do you know how tough it is to just sit back and do nothing about it? We have to get out there and find them!"

"Guys," Phoebus addressed calmly. "I know we're all about to lose our minds right now, but we can't go out there without coming up with some sort of plan first."

"Well, we need to come up with one and fast!" Hercules piped in.

"I agree!" Shang went along.

"Alright, but first things first," Phoebus began. "We're going to need to find out who this man is; what he looks like and where he hides out."

"Right." John agreed. "And we need to figure out where he would have taken them."

"God knows where he could have hid them." Shang muttered; shaking his head in disgust. "God, who would do something like this?"

Hercules blinked twice, before speaking. "Do you guys think…..that this person could be…..someone that we all know?"

Phoebus frowned. "Like who? Who would you have in mind?"

"Well, think about it," Hercules instructed; his gaze focused on his friend. "Neither of us knows who this man is or what he looks like. I just….have this feeling that maybe it could be someone that knows us and that's doing this to us."

Shang nodded slowly in deep thought. "You do have a point there, Herc but if that were the case, then why would they be doing this to us of all people?"

"Maybe in some sick way, they wanted to get back at us." John responded; furrowing his brow. "But….why take our girlfriends? I mean, what do they have to do with this? Why get them involved?"

"I couldn't tell you." Phoebus said; scratching his chin in deep thought. "We need to find out for sure who this man is."

"How?" Hercules asked. "I mean it's not like we're just going to randomly run into him at the police station. How are we going to find out for sure who he is?"

"We're going to need to look at the footage on the surveillance cameras; maybe then if we manage to get a good look at this man, we can find something." Phoebus replied.

"The footage?" Shang asked in a disapproving tone. "How are we supposed to get our hands on that thing? For all we know, the detectives could be guarding that thing like hawks. There's no way they will allow us to borrow that tape."

"They won't know." Phoebus spoke up; watching every single one of his friends closely. "One of us will have to sneak in and get it before any of them will notice."

John's face paled at the thought. "Phoebus, that's crazy talk. We could get charged or worse; arrested for that."

Phoebus watched John carefully; his blue eyes roaming over him. "Do you want us to find our girlfriends or not?"

"Of course I do! But-"

"Then we need that tape!" Phoebus threatened. "That tape is the only chance we have of finding them, and finding out _who_ this man is."

"But Phoebus, he's right." Shang bud in. "I mean, that does sound a little risky."

"Guys, I know this sounds risky, but this is definitely not going to be an easy task to manoeuvre around." Phoebus reasoned. "It's going to take a lot of courage, strength, smarts, teamwork and trust. Now, we need to come up with the first step to our plan and right now, getting our hands on that tape is the only shot we have; we're going have to take that risk whether we like it or not."

John heaved a deep sigh; knowing full well that his friend was right but at the same time, he couldn't cooperate that Phoebus's plan was undeniably crazy and very treacherous. But if it meant saving his beloved Pocahontas and the rest of his friends, then he was willing to take the plunge. John was certain that both Hercules and Shang were hesitant about this plan as well, but eventually they were able to suck it up and agree that they would willingly participate if it meant getting the chance to save Meg and Mulan.

"Alright." Hercules agreed; turning to Shang and John for approval. "I say we go for it."

Shang nodded. "I couldn't help but agree more."

"Alright." John said; nodding his head in approval. "We're going to do this."

Phoebus couldn't help but feel like a proud leader; nodding his head at every single one of his friends in approval relief, knowing exactly that they were all in fact on the same page.

"So what's the plan for sneaking in?" Shang asked; eager to get started.

"Well, since it's only 8:45am right now, we've got plenty of time to plot this all out." Phoebus replied. "We just have to time things correctly."

As Phoebus and Shang were in the middle of their discussion, a troublesome but curious expression masked Hercules's features as he furrowed his brow at the two objects that were hanging from John's hands; impertinent to know just what those articles were.

"Hey John?" Hercules questioned; not taking his eyes off of the items from John's hands. "What are those you're carrying?"

John looked confused; his bewildered expression gazing back at his friend before he finally remembered what it was that he was carrying right before he had stormed inside Hercules's room.

"Oh! I found these in my room." John held up the artefacts high and clear.

Phoebus's eyes widened; realizing that one of the items was none other than Esmeralda's yoga bag. He quickly snatched it from John's hands as he examined it carefully.

"John," He began carefully. "These were in your room."

John nodded. "Ya! I found them earlier this morning."

"But why would Esmeralda leave her bag in your room?"

John shrugged. "I couldn't tell you."

Phoebus frowned; eyeing Esmeralda's bag carefully. "I wonder if she left her cell phone in here."

"Now that you mention it, Pocahontas could have left hers in her bag too." John piped in; casting glances towards his friends.

"Well, why don't you guys empty the bags and find out?" Shang suggested.

Phoebus and John stared at each other for a moment, before wasting no time in quickly opening up the bags and tossing the articles onto the bed; eager to search for what they were looking for.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Hercules suppressed a rather loud sigh in annoyance as he marched over towards the door; swinging it open with such force. Convinced that he expected it to be some sort of frantic visitor demanding some sort of statement, his expression changed as he realized it was none other than Detectives Bob, Helen, Shrek and Fiona standing politely in the doorway. Hercules wasted no time in quickly allowing the four to enter right away.

"Detectives!" Shang sighed with relief. "Have you found anything else so far?"

Bob nodded. "We did actually and we figured that you all really needed to hear this."

Hercules winced at the seriousness of Bob's tone. "Is it….bad?"

"From the looks of it, it is pretty bad." Shrek said as Hercules and Shang both winced in unison at their firm tones.

"Guys!" Phoebus walked towards them. "Detectives, I found Esmeralda's cellphone; it turns out she left it in her yoga bag the night she disappeared."

"I found Pocahontas's too." John piped in; joining the rest of the gang. "Looks like her phone had been in her bag the entire time."

"That's actually why we came here to talk to all of you." Helen said; reaching into her pocket to retrieve what looked like Meg's cellphone. "It turns out that we found something unusual on Meg's phone that you would all like to know."

Hercules gulped. "W-what?"

"The same thing applies to Mulan's phone as well." Fiona cut in as she pulled the familiar cellular device out of her pocket. "While Helen and I were going through Meg and Mulan's cellphones just to make sure that everything was intact, we noticed some unfamiliar text messages appear in both of their inboxes."

Shang frowned. "Unfamiliar text messages? F-from who?"

"That's what we wanted to find out from you." Helen said; appearing by Hercules's side and holding up the screen of Meg's phone for him to get a better view. "Does this message seem familiar to you?"

Hercules took the phone from Helen's hand; brows creasing with anger and worry as a pang of panic formed inside of him. He kept his eyes on every single word of the text message, before reading it aloud.

"_Roses are red, violets are blue. A gorgeous girl like you should not be walking by herself….otherwise, I will come and get you."_

Shang frowned; gently peeking over Hercules's shoulder to get a better view of the mysterious text message bulging out at them.

"W-what does that mean?" Hercules stuttered; unable to take his eyes off of the screen. "W-who sent this message to her?"

"That's a mystery we still have yet to solve." Helen explained carefully.

"D-did Mulan receive the exact same text message too?" Shang asked worriedly.

"Actually, she did." Fiona responded; lifting the screen of Mulan's cellular device to Shang's eyes. "But this person didn't write the exact same message as he did with Meg."

Shang quickly took the phone from her hand; his gaze focused on the bright screen in front of him as he read over the text message; before opening his mouth to read it out loud.

"_Those are some serious nuggets of wisdom that your friend gave to you, but she's right. I would seriously take her word for it; after all, I would deeply hate for anything tragic to happen to her….and most importantly….to you for that matter."_

"Who in the right mind would send these sick text messages?" John demanded angrily.

"That's what we came here to talk to you about." Bob stared at each and every one of the young men standing before him. "Judging by those text messages that we've found on Meg and Mulan's cellphones, we think that whoever has taken them might have also been stalking them as well."

Phoebus's face paled at the sound of Bob's words; his stomach twisting and turning. However, a sudden thought came to mind as realization hit him. Wasting no time, he quickly tapped open Esmeralda's cellphone; heading over to her inbox in desperate search of something suspicious.

"Phoebus, what are you doing?" John furrowed his brow at his friend.

Phoebus ignored the question. "Detectives, if this person had sent those text messages to Mulan and Meg, would be there a possibility that he could have sent one to Esmeralda as well?"

"Based on what we've found, it is possible." Shrek confessed.

Before he had a chance to blink, right then and there, Phoebus's felt his jaw drop to the ground; his eyes literally bulged out of his sockets at what he was just witnessing on the tiny screen before him. He was not able to take his eyes off of what he had just witnessed.

"Phoebus?" Bob asked carefully. "Did you find something on that phone?"

Phoebus nodded slowly; before opening his mouth to read out loud.

"_Roses are red, violets are blue. Guess which beautiful girl will end up in that body bag next….oh wait….that beautiful girl will be you."_

John gaped; eyes widening in terror. He already knew full well that if the other girls had received these mysterious text messages, that it was possible that Pocahontas had received one as well. He wasted no time in tapping the screen of her phone; fingers tapping eagerly to retrieve what he had been looking for.

"So Esmeralda received one as well?" Shrek said carefully, as Phoebus slowly nodded.

"From that same, unknown person?" Helen asked. Phoebus nodded again, while Hercules and Shang on the other hand looked as if they had just seen the ghost of Christmas past.

John gasped; frowning in fury as his hands began to shake, not able to remove his eyes from the small screen in front of him.

"Did you find something too John?" Shrek asked.

John wasted no time in opening his mouth to speak; reading the message out loud.

"_Coincidence pretty girl? How about I say that over your dead body, then we'll see if that was coincidence or not."_

"No…." Shang gasped; unable to take his eyes off of the screen. "This….can't be happening…."

"Maybe…..it might have been….some sick prank…" John mumbled.

Hercules shook his head. "No. No, this doesn't seem like this is a prank at all."

"Gentlemen," Bob began. "I know we've asked all of you this before, but have any of your girlfriends been having any sort of problems with anyone that they know?"

"Not that we would know of." Phoebus answered.

"Well, did any of them perhaps mention to either of you about these mysterious threat text messages that they've received?" Helen asked.

The four men each looked up from the cellular devices; exchanging bewildered glances with one another carefully as they all shook their heads.

"N-no." Phoebus confessed. "They didn't."

"But this isn't like them to hide something as serious as this from us?" John cut in.

"Well, do you think that there's more that they could be hiding from either one of you?" Fiona asked.

Shang quickly shook his head. "No. They wouldn't do something like that. I mean, they all know that they can trust us."

"So in other words, you're saying that it isn't likely that they would hide anything like this from either of you?" Helen said; eyes darting between the four young men.

"Of course not!" Hercules frowned. "If someone was threatening them in any way, we would be the first to know!"

Shrek sighed heavily. "Okay but based on the evidence, have any of your girlfriends mentioned or seen anyone suspicious lately?"

"Any kinds of problems they've had with some guys in their lecture halls?" Bob asked.

"Or have they found themselves in sticky situations with any male professors lately?" Shrek asked again.

"Honestly," John began. "The best answer we can give you all is no. I-I mean, none of them claimed that they were having problems with any guys or any male professors. None whatsoever."

"If neither of them had any problems with their professors, what about their fellow students?" Fiona asked. "Was anyone ever jealous of your girlfriends? Did they have any enemies?"

Shang shook his head. "Not that we know of actually. They're all a very likeable group of girls."

"Do you know if their parents or relatives would know if they've been in some sort of trouble?" Fiona asked.

Phoebus seemed rather hesitant at the question; but finally opened his mouth to speak. "They probably would…but…."

"But?"

"The only problem is that, all of their families are out of the country." Hercules confessed nervously. "I know that Meg mentioned to me before that her parents and her older sister had left sometime back in March to visit some relatives back in Greece for six months."

"Oh?" Helen asked knowingly. "Did they happen to say when they would be back?"

Hercules shook his head. "No ma'am."

"And what about Mulan's family?" Fiona turned to Shang. "Did they say where they would be going?"

"Her brother and her parents left for China back in February." Shang answered truthfully. "She said they had some sort of ceremony to attend with their relatives, and that they wouldn't be back until September."

"Esmeralda's family is back in Paris, France for the time being." Phoebus said.

"And Pocahontas's family flew out to Virginia." John piped in.

"And did Esmeralda's or Pocahontas's relatives happen to say when they would be back?" Shrek asked.

"No sir." Phoebus and John both said in unison.

"Would there be any possible way to get a hold of them?" Bob asked.

"Not that we know of." Shang said.

"Did they happen to leave any numbers in case any of you needed to get a hold of them?"

"Yes they did." John answered. "But we're not sure if the girls have taken the numbers to hold on to; in case they needed to reach them from any destination."

"Alright, well, we're still going to need all of you to look for the numbers of each of their relatives and bring them down to us as soon as possible." Shrek instructed.

Hercules hesitated at first, before finally blurting it out. "Sir, maybe that's not such a good idea."

"Yea I mean, with all due respect, Meg, Mulan, Esmeralda and Pocahontas's parents were already iffy about leaving them behind in California together with just the four of us guys. The last thing we want is for their parents to freak out on us. I-I mean, their parents will probably never trust us again!"

"And with all due respect to you young man," Fiona cut in politely. "As their parents and legal guardians, they have a right to know what is happening with their daughters. And as our responsibility of the law, it is our duty to report this to their immediate relatives; it doesn't matter how far they are."

"And if any of you have a problem with that, you're more than welcome to take it up with the police." Bob suggested as the four men immediately nodded and obeyed their orders.

"But what about these text messages?" John asked anxiously. "What do we do about these?"

"You can leave that up to us to try and figure out who is behind all of this." Helen assured. "From the looks of these messages, the perpetrator knew what he was doing."

"How can you be so sure?" Phoebus frowned. "Are you saying that this man has been keeping tabs on our girlfriends this entire time?"

"Based on what we've found so far; yes he was." Fiona answered. "And based on the evidence from the footage to the text messages; we think that this man didn't just pick your girlfriends out randomly from the streets."

"So are you saying that there's a possibility that this man could have just chosen our girlfriends wisely and decided to plot against them?" Shang asked.

"We think so." Shrek answered. "Whoever this man is, we think that he might have had it out for them."

John frowned. "B-but why? Why our girlfriends of all people?"

"That's what we need to figure out." Helen said. "What about your girlfriends' personal lives? Any strange cousins? Abusive fathers? Any ex-boyfriends?"

Immediately, Hercules's face paled as his eyes widened in terror; anger soon masked his expression as he felt the insides of his stomach twist and turn. He clenched his teeth as he cursed under his breath.

"Son of a bitch!" He hissed loudly in anger; causing confused glances to focus in his direction. "I should have known!"

"Should've known what exactly?" Helen asked; frowning.

Hercules had no choice but to gather up all of his anger and calmly explain the situation; whether he wanted to or not.

"Adonis." He responded through clenched teeth; his eyes fixed on every single person in the room carefully. "I should have seen this coming!"

Phoebus frowned. "Adonis?"

"Herc," Shang began calmly. "You're thinking….Adonis had something to do with this?"

"Adonis?" Bob grimaced. "May we know who this Adonis person is?"

"Adonis Gold," Hercules began darkly. "He was Meg's psycho, ex-boyfriend."

"Psycho?" Fiona questioned. "And how would you define 'psycho' exactly?"

"Adonis wasn't a good guy." Phoebus answered honestly. "We all went to Oakland High together, and him and Meg dated for about four months back in their freshmen year. He was a total jerk!"

"He was more than just a…..jerk!" Hercules spat in disgust. "He was cocky, too full of himself, arrogant, an alcoholic and he was crazy!"

"Was he ever abusive towards Meg?" Shrek lifted his eyebrows.

Hercules sucked in a deep breath; looking as if he was in some sort of pain as Shang and Phoebus pat his back in comfort. He finally gathered up the courage to speak.

"He was." He answered in an honest tone. "He would….get jealous of every guy she was friends with, or she would just talk to. He would often accuse her of cheating and when she would deny it, he was convinced that she was lying so he…..he would beat her. And there were times when he would follow her home without her knowing, just to make sure that she wasn't lying and sneaking over to some other guy's house."

"It's true." Phoebus cut in. "I remember Esmeralda being worried to death because she would often see Meg coming to school with bruises all over her arms and legs, and she came with a black eye once. That guy treated her like his personal punching bag."

"So this Adonis fellow was in deed very possessive of Meg?" Helen stated sympathetically. "Did he ever threaten to kill her?"

"Many times!" Hercules's eyes masked with anger. "There were times when Meg would try to leave him and he would threaten to kill her if she ever tried to. But when she finally broke up with him, he went ballistic! It got to the point where her entire family put out a restraining order on him if he even made the slightest attempt to go near or even look at her."

"Now that you mention this Herc," John began; teeth clenched. "I should have picked up on this earlier as well!"

"Picked up on what, John?" Shang frowned.

"That maybe, he could also be behind this as well."

"And who else would that be?" Fiona studied him carefully.

John swallowed loudly. "Pocahontas's ex-boyfriend; Kocoum Maroon."

Hercules furrowed his brow. "But for all we know, this was just one person….but do you think Kocoum could be behind this too?"

"It's possible." John clutched the phone tighter in his grasp. "Kocoum is definitely capable of doing something like this too."

"So, so far that's two possible suspects we have on our list." Bob scribbled down at his notepad. "Can you tell us more about this Kocoum fellow?"

"We all knew Kocoum too," Shang began. "He was a very serious and quiet guy, but it turns out he was more serious than we all thought."

"Serious?" Helen was somewhat shocked. "In what way exactly?"

"Kocoum was very possessive of Pocahontas." John answered in anger. "They dated back in their sophomore year for about six months. He didn't like her talking to guys, or even hanging around with her friends. I mean, he would go through her cellphone to make sure she wasn't texting or calling anyone, and whenever she would excuse herself to go the washroom or if she had to leave school early, he would constantly be stalking her just to make sure she wasn't sneaking off to meet up with some friends."

"He's not making any of this up." Shang defended him. "I remember her and Mulan went six full months without talking to or seeing each other just because Kocoum wouldn't allow her to have any contact with anyone; her family members being the exception. He basically treated her like she was his slave."

"Did he ever hit Pocahontas when she would disobey his rules?" Shrek asked, sounding concerned.

John shook his head. "Thankfully no. But he was verbally abusive towards her."

"I'm guessing he threatened to kill her if she ever tried to leave him?" Bob said knowingly.

"Not exactly," John answered. "It was more like, if he can't have her, then absolutely no one else can."

"And when she eventually broke up with him and started dating you?" Fiona pressed.

"Of course he lost it," John answered darkly. "And like Meg and her family, Pocahontas took out a restraining order against him."

"So to get all of this sorted out," Bob spoke carefully. "You're all convinced that either one of these young men could be the mystery behind your girlfriends' kidnapping?"

"They're both definitely capable of plotting something like this." Phoebus answered.

"And do either of you know where these men are currently living at the moment? Or if they're even in school?" Helen asked.

"Not that we're aware of." Shang replied.

"But if I were to guess, they usually spend most of their times at the bars; drinking and getting wasted, hooking up with random girls. But we're not exactly sure of the exact location." Phoebus said.

"Okay, well we should be able to get some work done with these and see if there's a backstory to any of this." Helen tucked her notepad back into her pocket as did the rest of the detectives. "We're going to have to find these men and bring them into questioning, a.s.a.p."

"We'll do a background check on each of them in the meantime." Bob stated; before focusing his attention on the four young men in front of him and nodded in their direction. "Alright, we should be going now but as always, we will call you all if anything."

Phoebus nodded. "Thank you, sir."

* * *

**12:30pm – 40 Hours**

"Do you think it was such a good idea that we lied to the detectives about this?" Shang asked worriedly; the four young men standing right in front of a rather messy looking porch step leading up to a crummy looking townhouse. "I mean how are we going to be sure if they're not spying on us this very minute?"

"Shang," Hercules pressed; closing his eye shut. "I know what we did was wrong, but this could be the only chance we have of finding the clues as to where our girlfriends' could be right this very minute."

Shang groaned. "I know and you're right, but I just don't think that lying to the detectives about not knowing where Adonis and Kocoum live was the best thing to do."

"Shang," John cut in. "I know this is risky, but we have to do this. Our girlfriends' are counting on us to find them once and for all. We have to do this for them."

"They're right, Shang." Phoebus stared at his friend. "For them, it's worth the risk."

Shang heaved a deep sigh. "Alright. Let's just get this over and done with."

Of course, Hercules and John wasted no time in being the first two to march up the steps aggressively one after the other while Shang and Phoebus decided to hang back slightly, but they were still just as eager to get their hands on any available clues that happened to come their way. With only having to take three giant steps, the four men were already standing right in front of the painted door with cracks and scratches all spread out in different shapes and directions.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Hercules's fist pounded loudly against the door; his face steaming red as well as John's as they were both eager and anxious to finally be able to get their hands the two suspects. There were sounds of the loud shuffling of large footsteps that made their way to the door; with the four men waiting anxiously on the other side. After only two minutes of waiting, it wasn't long until the squeaking of the door hinges began to sound loudly and there in plain view, stood what looked like a drunken blonde haired young man; his body teetering and resting against the door as a frown creased his eyebrows.

"What….the hell….are you-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Hercules was quick to grab him roughly by the collar of his shirt and slammed his fist square into his jaw. The guy howled in pain and agony as he tried to rip himself out of Hercules's tight grasp; but ended up failing miserably.

"Where the hell is she?" Hercules threatened through clenched teeth. "Where are you hiding her?"

Adonis grunted; eyes widened in terror and anger. "Hiding who?"

"Don't play games with us Adonis!" Phoebus glared. "You know who we're talking about!"

"No. I. Don't!" Adonis yelled. "I don't know who the hell you're talking about!"

"Yes you do!" Shang shouted angrily. "Quit acting so innocent and tell us where the hell you're hiding them!"

"GO TO HELL!"

"Adonis?" A loud voice yelled from inside the house. "What the f*ck man?"

Realization hit John right in the gut as he immediately recognized who that arrogant voice belonged to. His expression clouded with anger as he pushed past Adonis and stomped his way inside the house; in search of the person he was expecting to find. It didn't take him long to witness what looked a drunken, dark-haired young man with copper coloured skin standing right in front of him at the foot of the stairs; his expression was furious.

Wasting no time, John immediately grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shoved roughly against the wall; sending a punch square in his jaw and remained grabbing at his collar with both hands.

"Where is she?" He growled. "Where the hell have you taken her?"

"Taken…who?" Kocoum grunted in pain.

"You both sure as hell know who we're talking about!" Hercules's voice roared angrily as he dragged Adonis back inside, with Phoebus and Shang following behind.

"Tell us where you've taken them!" Phoebus yelled; ripping Adonis from Hercules's grasp as he pinned him roughly to the wall. "Where are you hiding them? And why did you send them those text messages?"

"Hiding who? Where?" Adonis grumbled.

"And what damn text messages are you talking about?" Kocoum growled.

"For Christ sakes!" Shang roared. "What did you do with Meg, Mulan, Esmeralda and Pocahontas? Where are hiding them?"

"Meg?"

"Pocahontas?" Kocoum questioned. "What the f*ck are you talking about? I never went near that bitch!"

John punched him again; this time in his stomach as he shoved him against the wall. "Don't ever call her that again!"

"Well she is!" Kocoum spat darkly. "She's…the one who….broke up….with me!"

"And obviously there was a reason for that!" Shang growled angrily. "Now tell us; what the hell did you do with our girlfriends?"

"WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Adonis roared; still pinned tightly to the wall. "WE NEVER TOUCHED THEM OR WENT NEAR THEM!"

"Bullshit!" Hercules yelled; stepping in to continue pinning Adonis to the wall as Phoebus angrily took a step back. "We know you two have been stalking them! Where the hell did you hide them?"

Adonis chuckled darkly. "You're…pathetic! I never…..laid a hand…..on your slut of a….girlfriend!"

Hercules roughly shoved him against the wall; his breathing was heavy as his jaw remained clenched. "Shut the hell up!"

"Now we're going to ask you both one more time…" John threatened. "Where are you hiding them? What did you do to them?"

"We don't know where the f*ck they are!" Kocoum yelled. "We never went near any of them! We haven't been stalking them and we sure as hell….didn't send them any damn text messages!"

"You're both lying!" Phoebus shouted; glaring. "How do we know that you're both hiding any of them upstairs or down in your basement?"

"TELL US WHERE THEY ARE!" Shang roared. "NOW! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!"

"What is going on here?" A loud voice boomed loudly throughout the small hallway of the little home.

Immediately, all six men turned their heads in the direction of where that loud voice had come from; each of their faces soon turned pale as they automatically recognized who that voice had belonged to. There in the doorway, stood Detectives Bob and Shrek with what looked angered expressions masking their faces. Just by witnessing this, Hercules and John promptly unlocked their rough grasps on both Adonis and Kocoum as the two were now released from their aggressive hold.

"Detectives?" Phoebus gasped. "W-what are you….doing here?"

Bob frowned. "We should be asking you all the same thing."

Shang put his hands up in surrender. "L-look detectives….w-we can explain."

"No," Shrek shook his head angrily. "What the four of you need to do is leave, right now."

"But sir-"

"Get out, now." Bob glared at each and every single one of them. "We have an interrogation we need to handle right now. But after we're through here, we will deal with all of you later."

"But sir-"

"All of you get out, now!" Shrek threatened.

Exchanging worried glances with one another, the four men hesitated at first; wondering if it was such a good idea to leave things the way they were before having the opportunity to receive any answers. But of course part of them knew that they were all already in hot water with the detectives as they wasted no time in quickly walking past the angry detectives and stepped outside onto the porch; all of them winced at the sound of the door slamming shut right behind them.

* * *

**2:30pm – 42 Hours**

"Well, our plan backfired." John paced slowly back and forth in Shang's room; 4C. "What the hell do we do now?"

"Honestly," Shang began; head resting on the palm of his hand. "We were getting nowhere with Adonis and Kocoum!"

"Do you think that they were lying?" Phoebus asked.

"Of course they were Phoebus; right through their teeth!" Hercules threw his hands angrily up in the air. "Adonis and Kocoum cannot be trusted! They're known to be liars!"

"Yeah I mean, who knows where they could be hiding them right this very minute!" John cut in; stopping in his tracks. "Think of it this way; whoever this man was, he definitely had it out for our girlfriends! Adonis and Kocoum definitely fit that profile! They've both had it out for Meg and Pocahontas ever since they both dumped their asses!"

"But if Adonis and Kocoum had it out for Meg and Pocahontas," Shang furrowed his brow; lifting his head from his palm. "Then why take Mulan and Esmeralda too? I mean, what have they ever done to them?"

"Isn't it obvious Shang?" Phoebus turned to face Shang. "If they wanted Hercules and John to suffer, then they both sure as hell wanted you and me to suffer with them just as bad."

"I know they're lying." Hercules growled. "I don't have any doubt in my mind that they would do sink this low as something like this. We have to go back over there and get them to confess sooner or later."

"I'm with Hercules on this one too." John agreed.

"Guys," Shang began; his voice dangerously low. "You realize that we're all pretty much in hot water with the detectives now. Now that they know we lied to them, it's going to be pretty impossible to even get near Adonis and Kocoum's place."

"So how else are we supposed to prove to the detectives that Adonis and Kocoum are lying?" John raised an eyebrow.

"The tape." Phoebus said suddenly. "Think about it; we don't know for sure if Adonis and Kocoum are the ones behind this."

Hercules furrowed his brow. "So are you saying that it's a possibility that Adonis and Kocoum could be…._working _with or for someone else?"

"It's possible…" Phoebus thought. "Maybe….they could be lying about the text messages…..but telling the truth about the kidnapping all together…."

John furrowed his brow. "But it just doesn't make sense….the detectives explained to us that the person who took them had been stalking them and sending them mysterious text messages. I mean, wouldn't it make sense that whoever was stalking and texting them would have been the one to take them as well?"

"That's what we all need to figure out." Phoebus answered honestly. "And that's why we need to get our hands on that tape; a.s.a.p."

"But what if we get caught?" Shang asked obviously. "Then what do we do?"

Phoebus chose his words carefully. "Then, so be it. Just remember; that tape is our only hope of finding our girlfriends."

* * *

**5:30pm – 45 Hours**

**Location: Abandoned warehouse**

"You can't keep us here forever." Meg threatened angrily; glaring up at the large man standing above her. Her hands tied bound tightly behind her back.

The strange figure did nothing but chuckle darkly in response; smoking what looked like a cigarette as he blew a heavy puff of smoke from his mouth into the dusty air that surrounded the four young women; the four of them coughing and gagging heavy and roughly in response. Esmeralda glared furiously at the man standing above her; hands tied behind her back.

"What do you want with us?" She demanded in a rather harsh tone.

The man huffed in response. "Don't question me, sweetheart."

"Don't call me sweetheart, you cruel bastard." She spat.

"Feisty group of girls, aren't ya?" He mused sarcastically. "I like them feisty."

"Let us go!" Pocahontas demanded through clenched teeth angrily; struggling to get free of now bound hands.

"Shut up."

"You don't own us!" Mulan practically yelled; her piercing glare boring into the large figure looming over her with her hands bound. "Let. Us. Go!"

The man blew another puff of smoke from his mouth; blowing the air right into Mulan's face as she huffed and coughed roughly, while a clever smirk played at the man's lips. Soon, he crouched his body down dangerously close towards her; face just inches from hers. His lips pulled into a smug grin.

"And what happens when I don't, Sugar?" He threatened. "What are you going to do about it?"

Mulan scowled right into his face; feeling her heart rate dangerously increasing higher and higher in fear and anxiety. But she did her best to push her fear aside and to remain strong.

"Go to hell."

It happened in such a blur, when Mulan felt a sudden sting to her face as she yelped in pain; head jerking in the opposite direction from the sudden force as a chorus of gasps sounded simultaneously together at once. It was then when she realized that she had earned an aggressive slap to her face with the man looming over; smirking devilishly down at her as he slowly rose from the ground.

"You…." Esmeralda spat.

"You pig!" Meg said darkly. "You're an idiot!"

Instantly, the man's head snapped in Meg's direction; his brows creased with fury as knelt down beside her; his face just inches from hers.

"What did you call me?" He threatened.

Meg glared. "You heard me. You're a pig, you're an idiot! You think you're man just because you hit girls and keep them locked up in cell for God knows how long-"

Before she could finish her sentence, it was so sudden when Meg instantly felt the wind being knocked out of her system. She could feel his large hand and fingers gripping tightly around her neck as she lifted slowly and effortlessly just inches from the ground; enough to make her feet dangle as she struggled to break free, but failed miserably. She gasped as his fingers clenched tighter and his nails digging deeper into her skin; causing her neck to bruise quickly.

He made sure she was eyelevel with him as he brought her in closer towards him; his breath hot against her skin as the other gasped in fright; eyes widening in terror.

"You act like your tough now, but you won't be for very long, sweetheart." He threatened. "You keep running your mouth like that to me, and I will do much worse to you. I will make sure you won't be able to walk for the rest of your life, and I'm _very _capable of doing that."

Meg kept her mouth shut; unable to breathe as she glared furiously. Without another word, she felt her body being thrown forcibly to the hard ground; landing smack with a loud thud right on her back as the wind was once again, knocked out of her system. She suppressed a rather loud groan in pain and agony. Esmeralda gasped as a saddened look crossed her features; feeling nothing but helpless and defenceless at witnessing her best friend in pain and knowing she could do absolutely nothing to help. Instead, her brows creased with fury as she glared at the man above; feeling nothing but disgusted with his behaviour and hostility.

"What is wrong with you?" Pocahontas spat in anger.

Of course, the man responded by smoking his cigar and blowing another cloud of smoky air into their faces. A smirk played at his lips as he turned to head out of the cell.

"You're pathetic!" Mulan called angrily.

The man immediately stopped dead in his tracks; his knuckles clenched to his sides as he slowly turned his head in Mulan's direction, his body soon following. He let a glare mask his expression and marched over towards her. Without expecting it, Mulan felt a sharp pain to her side; yelling and howling in pain as her body fell sideways with so much force and landed smack on the ground; realizing that she had just received a rather aggressive kick to her ribcage; the pain spreading quickly throughout her system.

"Keep running your mouth, and I will make sure you won't be able to move ever again for the rest of your life, sugar."

Pocahontas shot a piercing glare in his direction as he turned to leave; slipping past the door and slamming it shut with such force. A devilish grin played at his lips as he chuckled darkly; knowing that this would all be too easy.

* * *

**Sooo…what did you guys think? Love it? Hate it? So….do you think that there's a possibility that Adonis and Kocoum could be involved in this situation? Find out next chapter! I apologize if this chapter wasn't the greatest; I didn't think it was my best but I hope you all enjoy it otherwise!**

**Anyways, a big warm shout out to my awesome readers and reviewers: DisneyFreak010, bs13, FloraIrmaTylee, DisneyChick2012, WinxBigFan135, a few anonymous reviewers and to my very best friend, Suzerenma! **

**As always, you guys know the drill! Show your love and R&R! More to come soon! Mwah!***


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